2024-04 · NASA ASRS report 2112596
Air carrier flight attendants reported a cabin door would not arm and the lever was difficult to move during gate departure. Maintenance removed plastic ware found stuck in the door frame and door functioned normally.
I am a ZZZ based international purser who worked flight XXX ZZZZ-ZZZ Day 0.On the ground in ZZZZ while preparing for departure; I was notified by Flight Attendant A that door X was unable to be armed. I notified the First Officer and he went to the flight deck to inform the Captain. I made a disarming announcement and did an all call. I went to the back of the plane where the door initially appeared to be closed. I tried to cycle the door; per standard operating procedure (SOP) for this type of issue. When the door remained unable to be armed; I notified the flight deck again. Captain then sent the First officer to the back to arm the door. He was unsuccessful. I went back to the flight deck and told Captain he wasn't able to arm the door. The Captain quickly stormed out of the flight deck and swiftly went to the back where he used all his force to pin the arming lever to the left. The slide light did light up. He said its fine. However; the flap that shows the arming lever is armed was pinning the lever over. The arming lever was being held there not resting there. The Captain then left for the flight deck. I positioned the flap correctly and the door halfway disarmed. Now the door couldn't be disarmed. It felt bent and resting in the middle of the space. Neither armed nor disarmed. I went to the flight deck to inform the Captain that the door now could not be disarmed. Captain asked me if I would write him up or; could we just go and ignore it?" I said; "I haven't decided yet?" He asked me again; "Are you going to write this up?" I then said "yes". I explained that I was uncomfortable with this and did not feel safe with the door. I said I would go with the order of authority letting the pilot in charge make the final decision. But we should side on safety and have it looked at. He verbalized that the right course of action would be to request maintenance but then exclaimed; "fuck it!" while throwing paperwork into the air and rudely gesturing to me to get out of the flight deck. The Captain then slammed the flight deck door and made a PA to the passengers that we were departing. The Captain; made the unilateral decision to complete the flight with full knowledge that the door was in a state of unknown. It was at this point that I contacted the inflight duty manager on my company issued electronic device to report this egregious safety violation. They were able to contact the flight deck via ACARS and demand a return to the gate. The aircraft was holding short of the runway prior to returning to the gate and came alarmingly close to takeoff.After the return to the gate; maintenance examined the door. The issue was identified to be debris and the slide pack. Maintenance found several plastic objects in the door frame. The slide pack had come loose from its housing and was preventing the door from closing entirely. The bottom of the slide pack was being pinned outside. Which could have caused the cabin from pressurizing correctly. Had the aircraft climbed into the flight levels with an open; unpressurized door; a variety of consequences might have occurred; including either a slow decompression or the door suddenly thrust back open in flight resulting in a rapid decompression and potentially injury or loss of life for the crew members working in the aft galley.After the maintenance team fixed the slide and the door; the flight continued to ZZZ without any additional maintenance incidents.That said; the delay on the ground caused a hazardous breakdown of communication and crew resource management (CRM) between the pilots and the flight attendants. I called the flight deck three times during the flight and they did not answer. The only communication from the Captain was in reference to his crew rest. The First Officers would only speak with me privately; out of sight or earshot of the Captain.The flight deck; particularly the Captain; was responsible for a complete breakdown in CRM and a willing disregard for threat and error management (TEM). I remained calm and professional during both the incident and the remainder of the flight and Captain refused to speak with me. He did ask me once for more coffee while out for a bathroom break. Not only was this behavior from the PIC unsafe; its extremely unprofessional. The Captain demonstrated several hazardous attitudes and seemingly prioritized his personal desire to depart at the expense of the safety and efficiency of the flight that our passengers depend on. If an evacuation been necessary with an unusable door; the result could have been detrimental. Had the aircraft experienced any type of decompression while airborne; the consequences could have been catastrophic. The Captain's actions were in violation of 121.535 and not in alignment with the Companies culture of safety.Only after the conclusion of flight did the Captain attempt to debrief with me. He admitted that the maintenance team did find issues which necessitated repair and that maintenance should have been called in the first place. The Captain; however; seemed agitated and more concerned with the actions I was planning to take regarding reporting the incident. I politely informed him that it was my duty to report a safety violation."
I completed my first report on my company site. After reading it; I felt I could have added more details to give a better description with my laptop. Here is a revised report. I was the Flight Attendant in charge of door X on a Aircraft X. After door closure the Purser made his announcement for Flight Attendants to arm their doors. I tried to arm my door but the lever was very difficult to rotate and did not reach the Armed position and the Slide light was not illuminated. I was going to try again; so I tried to disarm the door but the lever again was difficult to move and got stuck in a partially disarmed position with the green flag stuck on top of the lever. I answered the All Call and reported that I had a problem with my door. The door was not arming or disarming properly. I notified my Purser and he came to my door. He could see instantly that there was a problem and went to notify the Captain and asked me not to touch the door. One of the First Officers came back to address the issue first. I demonstrated and explained to him the door was unable to be successfully armed or disarmed. He witnessed the problem and agreed there was an issue. The First Officer toggled the lever back and forth until the slide light came on. I said that this isn't normal and that I have many years of experience on this door. I suggested that the door should be reopened and have the door frame inspected. He said we needed to wait for the Captain to do that but agreed that would be a good idea. Our Captain then came to meet us at the door. I repeated my concerns and showed him that the door was not able to be armed or disarmed without excessive force and that I had many years of experience in this particular door. I repeated that I suggested the door be reopened and inspected. The Captain cracked the door open minimally and asked if I could see anything in the frame. I told him I was unable to even look because the door was barely cracked. The Captain then forcefully slammed the door back shut. He then forced the door into a partially armed position until the slide light finally came on. He said; 'Looks good; let's get out of here' and hastily walked away from me before I could even respond. The First Officer saw my discomfort and shock and asked if I wanted to try to disarm and rearm the door. I said; 'Yes; please. I am responsible for this door when we land.' I tried again; the door was not fixed- it could not be armed or disarmed. As The Purser; the First Officer and I discussed what to do next; the Pilot called the phone at my door; the purser answered and told the First Officer that the Captain said he needed to return to the flight deck. The First Officer followed his order and left without another word. The Purser also followed them back to the flight deck. As per our policies and procedures; I cannot leave my door in that condition. I was waiting for word of what to do next and assuming I was waiting for maintenance when the plane began to start moving. I called our Purser in a panic asking why we started taxiing. He told me the Pilot made the decision to leave with my door in this partially armed state. I told him that I had already made it clear this was not OK and I was not comfortable when we were all back there with the flight deck. Our Purser sounded just as flustered as I was- he said he was nearly pushed out of the flight deck and he said he needed to think of what to do next because he did not tell them that the cabin was prepared or OK us to leave like that. Our Purser called me back a few minutes later and informed me that he had to call an emergency number to an Inflight Duty Manager to tell him the Pilot was trying to take off without our consent and with full knowledge of my door not being armed. He said The Inflight Duty Manager was going to get a message through ACARS demanding we return to the gate to have the door inspected. I was so relieved but still was waiting for the plane to slow down. A few momentslater; the plane began to slow down and the Pilot made an announcement that we were returning to the gate. When mechanics came on board; they immediately agreed with me that the door was not functioning safely. The three mechanics began to reopen the door and pulled plastic objects out of the door frame. Then once the door was fully opened; the mechanic pointed out a metal D ring attached to a rope that had fallen out of place under the center of the slide pack that was impeding the door from closing properly. They explained was a part of the slide pack and must have fallen out of its position when the door was opened and closed for catering. I immediately called our Purser and repeated that 3 items were found in the door frame and thanked him for helping stop the flight. The mechanic repacked this metal piece and said it was lucky I reported the issue. The door then was finally able to arm and disarm normally. Customers in the last row were very aware of the incident and were shocked because they heard me tell the Captain that the door was unsafe and that we couldn't take off until it was fixed. They couldn't believe he was in his position and said they were going to escalate the incident. No one from our flight deck ever contacted me to check on me or to apologize for trying to take off against my will with my door issue. I want it to be noted that I should have been able to refuse the flight before they decided to begin taxiing- I told each person involved that I was not comfortable leaving with my door in that condition. The flight deck failed to follow FARs; SOPs and CRM entirely. The Captain had a blatant disregard for my safety and well-being. I have zero tolerance for anyone who bypasses any of the above listed rules and regulations and I will never fly under this Captain's command again.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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