3.1 Cabin Crew Stations, Jumpseats & Attendant Panels

The station is a regulated position

A cabin crew station is not simply where a crew member happens to sit. Nig. CARs 8.14.11.2 requires that, where cabin crew are required by the Authority, each cabin crew member assigned to emergency evacuation duties occupy a seat provided in accordance with Part 7 during take-off and landing and whenever the pilot-in-command so directs. 8.14.11.3 adds that each cabin crew member shall be seated with seat belt, or when provided safety harness, fastened for the same phases. 8.9.2.4 requires cabin crew to remain at their duty stations with safety belts fastened during taxi, and to be located as near as practicable to required floor level exits for take-off and landing.

The reasoning is evacuation capability. If the aircraft comes to rest after an accident, the crew member must already be at the exit they are responsible for, uninjured, restrained and facing the right way.

The jumpseat

A cabin crew jumpseat is a certificated crashworthy seat with features a passenger seat does not have:

Jumpseats may face forward or aft. Brace positions differ accordingly, and that difference is examinable: forward-facing crew brace with the chin tucked down and the head pushed against the chest, while aft-facing crew brace with the head pushed firmly back against the head rest.

Pre-flight check of your station

Every crew member checks their own station before every sector. A defect found at the gate is an engineering item; the same defect found after an accident is a fatality.

1. Harness — all straps present, undamaged, not twisted, buckle locks and releases cleanly, inertia reel locks when pulled sharply, length adjustable.
2. Seat — folds down and stows automatically, locks in position, structure undamaged, no cracked or missing fittings.
3. Equipment at the station — life vest present and sealed in its stowage; flashlight present, correctly seated in its bracket and showing the serviceability indication; PBE present with seals intact; extinguisher where fitted, with the gauge in the operable band and the pin and seal intact.
4. Interphone handset — present, cord undamaged, stows correctly, and answers when tested.
5. Attendant panel — powers up, indications normal, no captions illuminated that should not be.
6. Surroundings — the door area and the escape path are clear, placards legible, no loose articles that could become projectiles.

Anything unserviceable is reported to the senior cabin crew member and, through them, to the flight deck for entry in the technical log and assessment against the Minimum Equipment List (MEL). The MEL is the document that determines whether the aircraft may depart with an item inoperative, and how many of a given item must be serviceable.

The attendant panel

Panel layout is type-specific, but the functions grouped there are consistent across transport aircraft:

• Cabin lighting control — bright, dim and night settings by zone, plus a separate emergency lighting arm and on control.
• Passenger address (PA) — access and priority. PA priority is normally flight deck first, then cabin crew, then pre-recorded announcements, then boarding music.
• Call system — attendant call, lavatory call and reset, with associated chimes and lamp indications.
• Reading light reset and general cabin services.
• Water and waste indications — potable water quantity and waste tank status.
• Door and slide status — armed or disarmed indication, door not closed and locked warnings.
• Evacuation alarm — where fitted, an arm and activate control sounding the alarm at all stations and on the flight deck.
• Smoke detection indications for lavatories, with reset.

The critical discipline is knowing which controls are guarded and which are not. Emergency lighting and evacuation alarm controls are normally guarded or lifted covers precisely because inadvertent operation causes an unnecessary evacuation, which is itself a serious safety event.

Reading the door area as one system

At a typical floor level exit, the crew member's station, the door and its emergency controls form a single working area containing: the door operating handle; the slide arming lever or girt bar with its armed and disarmed indication; the viewport; the manual inflation handle; the door assist mechanism indication; the emergency lighting; the interphone; the attendant panel; and the emergency equipment stowage.

Learn it as a layout rather than a list. In dense smoke, at night, with an alarm sounding, a crew member finds a control by knowing where it is relative to the door frame, not by reading the placard.