Flight attendant sensed plane was in trouble, 'felt a bang'

NBCNews.com ^ | Jack Chang and Youkyung Lee, Associated Press

[Hotlanta Mike]

The evacuation of Asiana flight 214 began badly.

Even before the mangled jetliner began filling with smoke, two evacuation slides on the doors inflated inside the cabin instead of outside, pinning two flight attendants to the floor.

Cabin manager Lee Yoon-hye, apparently the last person to leave the burning plane, said crew members deflated the slides with axes to rescue their colleagues, one of whom seemed to be choking beneath the weight of a slide.

It was just one of the moments of drama described Sunday by Lee of a remarkable evacuation that saved 305 of the 307 people on the plane that crashed Saturday while landing in San Francisco.

[Hotlanta Mike]

Extraordinary woman...

[Yo-Yo]

Extraordinary woman...

And a reason to allow passengers to carry pocket knives.

[Gay State Conservative]

My guess is that she felt more than one “bang” during that ordeal.

[Huskrrrr]

“Cabin manager Lee Yoon-hye, apparently the last person to leave the burning plane...”

Putting the passengers first. My hero.

[grobdriver]

two evacuation slides on the doors inflated inside the cabin instead of outside

Oy vey!
There's an AD in the making!

[Strategerist]

So how are the slides activated? Was this operator error or equipment error?

If equipment error I could see a ridiculous number of aircraft (how many besides 777s have the same door/slide design or manufacturer?) grounded until a fix is implemented as this is a critical safety flaw.

[T-Bird45]

And a reason to allow passengers to carry pocket knives.

GMTA!! Adding another reason to my ever-growing list of why I drive rather than fly!

[cripplecreek]

this is a critical safety flaw.

Years ago when the company I worked for started up for a new model year of Cadillac, we worked for 3 weeks when we suddenly got every last door we made back in the shop.

It wasn't our fault but it was one of those design flaws than no one caught till we were winding up for a full scale run. There was a big supply of normal production parts to test. It turned out that a series of metal studs inside the door were too long and too sharp. They prevented proper side airbag deployment, causing rips and snags. We had to grind 13 studs down flat and smooth on 36 thousand doors.

The design was changed to a fixed nut on one side so the stud could be replaced with a screw that was tightened down flat and out of the way of the airbag.

[Blueflag]

Doors are ‘armed’, to auto inflate when the doors are opened. You can watch the flight attendeants flip a large lever and/or attach a bar at the bottom of the doors to do this.

Force of impact/ flexing of fuselage probably activated the switch.

Worthy of an AD.

[straps]

BOGUS lie by NBC no slide can be activated until the door is open. This is NBC BS look at the pictures the slides are deployed outside the aircraft doors 1 2 3 as seen in the pictures were deployed outside the aircraft.

I personally muscled at least 2-300 of them on 747s, a300s, a310s,dc10s and 727s at Pan Am in 19 years I never ever saw 1 deploy inside the aircraft. Outside hell yes commissary did it many times as well as flight attendants not installing the safety pins and moving the lever to the disarm position we even painted the knobs red so they would see them

[Blueflag]

not worthy of grounding.

This was such an extraordinary event. They will learn from it and issue an update known as an AD or airwirthiness Directive.

[PghBaldy]

Then, after the passengers escaped, there was TSA &/or Customs to deal with, per the LA Times...

[skimbell]

OK, OK! Who banged the flight attendant?

[murrie]

You’re joking. Right? Umm. Right?

[Neidermeyer]

Force of impact/ flexing of fuselage probably activated the switch.

Worthy of an AD.
*********************************
YUP , from now on there’ll be a $50,000 bungee cord looped around the handle securing it ...

[PghBaldy]

No, I am not. First it was anecdotal report from a friend of a Freeper, then Drudge linked to LAT article which mentioned it.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Cabin manager Lee Yoon-hye, apparently the last person to leave the burning plane

Where was the pilot? Having coffee with the Captain of that Italian cruise ship?

[murrie]

That is sad. Crazy government regulations.....

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Reports say that the pilots were alerted by some kind of warning system.. that reminded me of this.

From an Internet source.

"In November 1983, a Colombian jumbo jet en route from Paris to Bogot was making a scheduled stop in Madrid. Landing in the dark, the crew made a mistake with the instrument landing system, turned on to an incorrect track and flew into a hill. An analysis of the cockpit voice recorder revealed that some minutes before the crash, an audible ground proximity warning system had told the crew: "Pull up! Pull up!" The pilot replied: "Shut up, gringo." Those were his last words. All 20 crew and 161 of the 172 passengers were killed."