Jumpseat: A Failure to Communicate

Les Abend

Wednesday, August 06, 2014 at 06:59 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The captain experienced two distinct incidents involving flight attendants where initial reports were significantly skewed by perception, leading to communication challenges and misjudgments.
The first incident involved a flight attendant's extreme apprehension over a routine repair, escalating into insubordination and misuse of emergency protocols, ultimately leading to her removal from the trip.
The second incident saw a flight attendant's dramatic account of a passenger swallowing a dish chip, which the captain initially dismissed but later resolved by speaking directly to the passenger, revealing a simple health concern instead of a lawsuit threat, thereby emphasizing the importance of direct communication to discern reality.

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From my peripheral vision, I caught a glimpse of our flight engineer using his thumb repeatedly to push on an amber press-to-test light. I turned in my seat and looked directly at the engineer panel, taking note of the area causing concern. The area was the hydraulic system. One of the B-pumps appeared to be inoperative. That was a no-go item on the 727. And we were in Santo Domingo — not a major maintenance base. Great.

My copilot informed operations of our plight via the radio. I unbuckled from my seat and wandered outside onto the ramp. A mechanic had already opened the hydraulic access panel on the underside of the fuselage. After a brief conversation, he confirmed that indeed the B-pump had failed. Miraculously, a replacement was available, but it would be at least an hour before the task was completed.