Or maybe just wait a second or two for the order or otherwise have the slide ripped off when it is ingested by the engine, then what? Also there was an actual fire on this flight? That is also new late breaking news.

 

pilots incapacitated, engines running, fire in the cabin, you are the lead FA who apparently must wait for the pilots to command an evacuation. What do you do?

 

Sit there and die, evidently. Just like the folks on Saudia 163.

 

Any of those happen in this case?

 

I’ll never understand why so many pilots just can’t wait to talk **** about their colleagues before they know any facts about the circumstances.

 

This is such a garbage take. I've had captains tell me that they insist on getting landing data for a dry 12,000' runway at sea level on a clear day with a light aircraft and no T-Procedure because "what would you tell the chief pilot if something happened?" Absolutely ridiculous. We just blindly make decisions based only on the fear of repercussions, so that in the unlikely event something goes wrong, we'll be able to say "but I printed out this piece of paper that says we should have been able to stop in time?"

 

We tie our identities to this, and we become ambition-minded freaks as we advance within the industry. So proving that we are better than our peers addresses an existential dread that lives within many of us. The result: we rush to judge others without facts. We shrink from real issues like deep conflicts of interest in ERBs or mishap response if we sense a promotion is on the line.

We train ourselves to be awful starting with critiquing other pilots radiotelephoney all the way to YouTube channels run by knobs who have to wear their epaulettes on screen. At the end of our careers, with our identities still tied to this, we burn anybody and anything to protect our legacies.

This industry often brings out the worst in us. You have to work to maintain your humanity in any case, but it's especially important and difficult in and around aviation.

The good news is this can also bring out the best in us sometimes. We just aren't seeing that side of things here.

 

Five pages later and the initial posted question still not definitively been answered....what was causing that beeping noise?

 

I think you’re both right and both wrong. So I’m sure this will get some hate…Hawker is right in that we now live in a world where when something goes wrong every aspect of your decision making as a crew member is scrutinized. FOQA(sp?) data monitors nearly anything that moves on the airplane or anything that uses a 1 or a 0. So yes, we need to have an explanation for why we made each decision we did. That includes having a reason to the question “why didn’t you get landing data for the runway that you side stepped to that was FICON 3,3,3 before you slid off a taxiway?”. His take isn’t garbage. It’s just a part of the world we live in as professionals now. In the 1950’s you could’ve been the sky king and told the stewardess to “Shut up and sit down! We’re landing in Peking when I say so!”.
But I understand your sentiment about letting this sort of thinking permeate every decision you make. As a pilot it can lead to poor and potentially dangerous decision making. An unnecessary evacuation can seriously hurt passengers and crew. I agree getting landing data for a 12,000 ft dry runway is ridiculous, but the FOM does say clearly in that situation you don’t need to do that unless it wasn’t your primary destination…then the CA was correct. ;-)

Oh and everyone saying quarterbacking and questioning the decisions of the crew in this situation with very little information is correct. We don’t have the full picture. Let the investigation happen. Give the crew the same grace that you would want given unto you.

 

The reasoning shouldn’t necessarily be out of fear of consequences, but to have the highest SA afforded to us. We owe it to our passengers and company to take the extra 30 seconds and review it, unless there’s some workload management consideration