An AirAsia flight from Perth (AUS) to Bali (Indonesia), apparently made an abrupt drop from 34,000 feet to 10,000 feet after the cabin experienced depressurization. Here is a video on YouTube of the incident from 9 News Perth.
Leading the hysteria on board were the flight attendants, who despite knowing that it was standard procedure teared up and screamed in panic. Luckily the drop was indeed standard procedure and the aircraft made a safe landing with all passengers coming out of it unharmed.
However this really begs the question of whether training can really reduce the stress or fear that any human being faces during these scenarios. Obviously other airlines must be doing something right in their training or hiring practices because AirAsia flights seems to be the one in the news most often with similar problems.
This incident really seems to be the exception rather than the norm for flight crews (thank goodness). Everyone recalls many instances where the crew remained calm, most famously in the “Miracle on the Hudson.” And while we can forgive the occasional lapse given that the crew is only human, Air Asia really needs to train its FAs better to handle these situations.
Well at least they didn’t run out of coffee:
Anyway, are the AirAsia passengers right in complaining about the FAs? What do you think?
