正文
This is an evacuation slide and it deploys when the main cabin doors are opened in the armed position. The 737 had a stand alone fail safe voice alarm that notified anyone trying to arm it in case it was unintentional. If it fails to deploy or is not armed, there is a manual lever or in our case, a red nylon handle tucked in the side of the door written in giant white letters, “PULL”. So that’s exactly what the intern did. The door was not armed, matter of fact it was not even closed, but he went ahead to, of all things, pull the goddamn handle.
We were all out of our work overalls getting ready for lunch when we heard the terrifying and familiar “
pppppssssshhhhhhffffffffff
”. We all knew it, someone had f@&ked up.
Well, some of you might think, ‘hey what’s the big deal, just get the slide back into the plane, you still got time.” Once an evacuation slide is deployed, it has to be taken down from the plane, transported to a certified shop,
which was not on-site
by the way
, where it is re-inflated again to check for defects, deflated, professionally packed, and its air canister re-pressurized. Then it has to come back to the hangar, get it lifted and fixed into the aircraft again.
