10.5 Unwarranted Evacuations, Abnormal Situations & Crew Incapacitation

Unwarranted evacuation

An unwarranted evacuation is one that begins without a command, normally initiated by passengers. The typical trigger is not an emergency at all: a compressor stall bang, a tyre burst, smoke from the brakes, a bird strike flash, an engine fire warning that the crew have already dealt with, or simply another passenger shouting "fire".

Why it is dangerous. People who go down a slide at their own initiative arrive on a ramp that has live engines, moving vehicles, jet blast and no reception. Slide injuries are common — ankle and leg fractures, friction burns and head injuries — and a crowd that has self-evacuated is far harder to account for and control than a cabin that stayed seated. In several accidents the evacuation caused more injuries than the original event.

Prevention:

1. Fill the information vacuum quickly. Passengers evacuate themselves when nobody tells them what is happening. A short, factual announcement — what the noise was, what is being done, and the instruction to remain seated — is the single most effective preventive measure.
2. Be visible and calm. Crew who stand up, look composed and speak clearly stop the spread of panic. Crew who look frightened accelerate it.
3. Use command language, not persuasion. "Remain seated. Remain seated. Do not open any exit." Repeated, loud and identical each time.
4. Physically guard exits where a passenger is moving towards one, and remember that the passenger is not being malicious — they are frightened and acting on incomplete information.
5. Get the flight deck's assessment early so the announcement can be factual rather than reassuring-but-vague.

If an evacuation starts anyway: the crew's task is to convert chaos into control. Stop what can be stopped, and where an exit is already open and people are going down, manage that flow — assess the exit, control the rate, and direct people away from the aircraft — rather than fighting a movement that is already under way. Report to the flight deck at once.

When a cabin crew member may initiate an evacuation

The default rule is that an evacuation is commanded from the flight deck. Cabin crew initiate one only when the situation is unmistakably catastrophic and no order is received. The recognised triggers are:

• Severe fire or dense smoke in the cabin that cannot be controlled;
• Ditching where the aircraft is in water and the cabin is flooding;
• Structural break-up of the fuselage;
• Evidence that the flight deck is incapacitated and no communication can be established, with a situation that plainly requires evacuation.

Before acting, the crew member attempts to contact the flight deck. If no contact is possible and the situation meets the threshold, the senior cabin crew member — or, if unreachable, the crew member at the scene — initiates. The exit is still assessed before opening: fire, obstruction, water level and slide condition.

Abnormal situations involving passengers or crew

Not every problem is an emergency, and the syllabus lists abnormal situations separately for that reason. The common ones and their handling:

The common principle is early, factual reporting. A flight crew told about smoke at top of climb has every diversion option open. The same crew told at top of descent has almost none.

Crew incapacitation

Cabin crew incapacitation — illness, injury during turbulence, a burn during firefighting — has an immediate operational consequence, because that crew member has a door, a set of equipment and a set of emergency duties.

Actions:

1. Treat the crew member as you would a passenger, using the first-aid kit and, if required, oxygen.
2. Reassign the door and duties immediately and say so out loud, so that every crew member knows the new plan.
3. Inform the flight deck of the reduced capability, because it affects the evacuation plan and may affect the crew complement required under Nig. CARs 9.3.1.7. Where the complement would fall below the required minimum, the pilot-in-command must know at once.
4. Seat the incapacitated crew member in a passenger seat where they can be monitored, not at a jumpseat where a passenger would assume they are operational.
5. Document and report, including any injury sustained on duty.

Flight crew incapacitation is subtler and more dangerous. Signs include no response to interphone calls, an unusual flight path, an unexplained failure to make expected announcements, or a pilot who sounds confused. Cabin crew should:

• Attempt contact using the normal method, then the emergency method;
• Follow the operator's flight deck access procedure if there is no response, exactly as briefed, since security procedures still apply;
• On entering, assist the remaining pilot as instructed — the surviving pilot flies the aircraft, and the cabin crew member's role is to do precisely what they are told, which may include moving the incapacitated pilot's seat back, securing them, or operating a radio or checklist under direction;
• Establish whether a medically qualified passenger is available, and whether another company pilot is travelling.

Crews rehearse this in joint CRM training, which is why Nig. CARs 8.10.1.34 requires that CRM be conducted jointly with flight crew and flight operations officers.