MUMBAI: Last week, the national carrier Air India learned that not having enough cabin crew members on its flights to keep an eye on passengers can have unforeseen consequences. Just before a Dreamliner aircraft was pushed back for takeoff at Moscow, a flyer opened a door and the escape raft fell out.

Had it not fallen onto the aerobridge, the slide would have inflated within seconds with much speed and force and caused serious injury and damage to personnel and vehicles on the ground, apart from inflicting engineering expenses on the debt-ridden airline.The incident took place minutes before the scheduled 8.30am (Moscow time) departure of AI’s Moscow-Delhi flight. A passenger, seated on 14A, had returned from one of the washrooms and was on his way to his seat. “I was about to take my seat when I heard a staffer knocking on the window asking to open the door. So I opened the door without realizing that I shouldn’t have opened it,” said the statement given to the airline by the passenger who had opened the door. A source said: “As the door opened, there was a sudden hissing sound, followed by a loud thud, and that was when the flight attendants noticed the passenger’s errant behaviour. It was too late to stop him.” The escape slide raft fell onto the aerobridge, and an engineering team had to be called to detach it from the aircraft.Air India did not comment on the incident. Its spokesperson sought time to respond.So what is wrong with opening an aircraft door? Before an aircraft is pushed back for departure, its doors are “armed” or set to “automatic”. Such doors can be easily opened by passengers as is expected to be done during an emergency situation on the ground. When an armed door is opened, the emergency evacuation slide which is packed and held within the door structure falls out. If the packed slide gets a drop of over two feet, it vigorously inflates and within ten seconds is ready to be used for evacuation. “It all happened in a jiffy,” said a source.The minimum number of cabin crew members depends on the number of seats and doors in an aircraft and the duration of flight.According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s norms, since the Dreamliner aircraft had eight doors and since the flight’s duration was over six hours, a minimum of nine cabin crew members should have been mandatorily rostered for the flight. “But AI had posted only seven of them. When the incident took place, the flight attendants were scouting around ensuring that all overhead bins were closed, window panes open and seats left in upright position, etc,” said the source. The flight left after a two-hour delay and the affected door was deemed “inoperative”. Since the Dreamliner was not packed to capacity, the airline was not forced to offload passengers. Else, to fly with one inoperative door, the airline would have been forced to offload 50 passengers. This is so because safety norms lay down a 90-second deadline for evacuation of the entire aircraft even when only half the number of emergency exits are available. That is also one of the reasons why safety norms dictate that every emergency exit should be manned by at least one cabin crew member.Cabin crew members play a crucial role in emergencies. The most cited example is that of Air France Flight 358 in the year 2005. After touchdown, the Airbus A340 overran a Toronto runway and fell into a gorge and caught fire. But the cabin crew managed to save all 309 aboard; within 60 seconds after the aircraft caught fire, all were evacuated.