Originally Posted by
orvil
You have to be careful with PA's. Here is my true story.
I'm an FO on the 727. Captain's leg into MIA. Anti-skid inop.
He has a very firm landing. Felt like we blew the left side main mounts.
As we are taxiing off the runway at significant list, tower contacts us and says "Delta, you may be on fire."
I suggested to the the Captain that he stick his head out the window to look, I thought we had just blown some tires.
As I was talking to tower, the Captain began to make a PA. From a distance I think I hear him say "Ladies and Gentlemen, we may be on fire."
I got off the radio and said "What did you just say?"
The SO (that's second officer or flight engineer for you youngsters) tapped me on the shoulder and asked "What are those people doing on the runway?"
We realized that the F/A's had only heard "fire" and started the evacuation. All the engines were running. I don't even think the brakes were set.
On the bright side, the slides weren't sucked into the engines. We opened the cockpit door and the airplane was empty. We shut the engines down. Maintenance came out and changed two tires.
We taxied to the gate. Empty. Turned the airplane and went back to DFW.
I got a phone call.
Moral of story. Be careful with PA's. This policy is disaster.
This is where maybe we're going off the deep end on this one. The policy actually has a great side: it acknowledges that we are better, more trustworthy, and more effective when it comes to calming the huddled masses. This is a GOOD thing.
The flaw is to make it mandatory. Some people should never do a gatehouse PA. Most of us can do a great job. I get a little intimidated in that format, for the first ten seconds, then I'm actually effective. As a CA, I'd try my hand at it, and see how it plays out. If I turned out it wasn't my thing, I wouldn't do it. But there are a lot of great guys that could be coaxed out, and would make great advocates for us.
Either we're f'n awesome, or we're not. We just don't need gate agents to be promised fireworks when some of us may be otherwise engaged, or unable to deliver.
If there was a memo telling gate agents to bring little kids up to the cockpit while boarding, we'd probably be talking about the dangers of little kids on flight decks.
The only problem with the memo, I'll say it again, is the mandatory nature of it. One change in one sentence would have made it perfect.