Virgin VS28 emergency landing at Gatwick

[thornton]

From what I have read on another forum posted by someone who was on the flight it appears that the Virgin cabin crew were disorganised themselves. They weren't helping people down the shutes, allowing them to follow on far too quickly from one another and also allowing some people to take the hand trolleys with them.

[MTP]

I can imagine, though, it is an extreme situation and despite all the training that you could do, not something that would happen as smoothly as you would ideally like it to happen. Throw into the mix a plane full of the general public ... [msneek][msneek][msneek][msneek] ... personally I think that they have done well.

[DaveL]

I have to say that based on what my daughter siad they did quite well. People should not take anyhting with them but if they turn up at the chute door what meant to happen? They can hardly be sent back.

The priority is to get everyone off the plane in case their is a real problem. A few cuts and scrapes are a small price to pay if the emergency had turned out to be more serious.

On a different note staffing levels on the big jets, excluding the pilots, all seem to be the number of emergency exits plus one or two extra. The A330 seemed to have 10 cabin crew which allowed them to have one at the top of each of the 8 chutes. Unless they have a vast increase in cabin crew there will never be anyone to help at the bottom of the chute.

Dave

[steph_goodrum]

I have to say that based on what my daughter siad they did quite well. People should not take anyhting with them but if they turn up at the chute door what meant to happen? They can hardly be sent back.

The priority is to get everyone off the plane in case their is a real problem. A few cuts and scrapes are a small price to pay if the emergency had turned out to be more serious.

On a different note staffing levels on the big jets, excluding the pilots, all seem to be the number of emergency exits plus one or two extra. The A330 seemed to have 10 cabin crew which allowed them to have one at the top of each of the 8 chutes. Unless they have a vast increase in cabin crew there will never be anyone to help at the bottom of the chute.

Dave

The problem is as well that if they sent someone down the chutes first they would probably be accused of helping themselves first and also if there is someone on board who needs more assistance there should be crew left to help them. I know there was a suspected fire but you would have imagined that ground staff would be on hand very quickly to help evacuate once they know the plane has landed safely. they were 30 mins out so they could be pretty much in place before the plane arrived.

[Jill]

I was surprised when I heard them talking about the lack of help they received on exiting the shutes however, it is not something that I expected the cabin crew to help with but would have thought that when this type of event happens at an airport there would be airport staff on hand to be at the bottom of the shutes to help people off and away form the exit as quickly as possible.

[MTP]

I guess, thinking about it logically as well, it can't be assumed that an emergency landing will always be 'conveniently' at an airport. So the priority will be to have crew at the top of the chute, rather than the bottom.