747-400
http://skift.com/2015/01/11/fired-flight-attendants-sue-united-airlines-over-safety-threat/
the incident in question took place on July 14 at San Francisco International Airport. While performing a preflight examination of the 747-400’s exterior, the flight’s first officer noticed that someone had traced the words “BYE BYE” and two mischievous smiley faces — one of them “devilish” according to the flight attendants’ complaint — into the oil covering the plane’s tail cone. The first officer then returned to the cabin and consulted with the pilot about the graffiti. In passing, he mentioned to one of the flight attendants that he’d seen a “disturbing image” on the underside of the plane.
It’s important to note that it wasn’t just the words and imagery that were disturbing but rather their placement. The tail cone is roughly 30 feet off the ground, and accessing it requires security authorization and equipment. Somewhere, in San Francisco or Seoul, the plane’s last embarkation point, a security sweep either missed the graffiti or considered it unthreatening. However, in the eyes of the experienced pilot and first officer, it most certainly wasn’t, and they called in maintenance and then more senior members of United Airlines staff.
The flight attendants’ complaint is riveting reading, as well as a disturbing indictment of United. When the maintenance supervisor arrived, for example, he gave the graffiti “a cursory glance,” asking “what’s the problem?” and then simply walking away. The only inspection made was of the auxiliary power unit encased in the nose cone. When the flight attendants demanded a full-on security sweep of the plane, including a deplaning by all passengers, the request was refused.
The pilot, apparently satisfied by the simple inspection, now called the graffiti a “one-off joke,” according to the complaint. But the flight attendants didn’t share his mirth and chose not to fly, thereby forcing the cancellation of the flight. Two months later, they were fired.
These are not rookie flight attendants. Collectively, they have “over 299 years” of flying experience. In other words: They’ve seen all the skies have to offer. Did they overreact to a cartoon? Only if you believe that the TSA overreacts when it bars someone from boarding a plane after joking about carrying a bomb. In each case — the bomb joke and the cartoon — odds are that there’s nothing wrong.
But in the case of the United flight, those odds could have been easily lowered in safety’s favor. Why weren’t they? In a statement, the airlines claims that it made a “comprehensive safety sweep prior to boarding.” It did not address concerns, however, that the sweep was inadequate, or that its pilots and San Francisco management were willing to brush off crew concerns about a safety-related joke. That’s a dangerous double-standard that United — and the agencies that regulate it — need to address.
