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Would you have taken this flight in this situation?

Posted by (Peterborough, ON, Canada) on

I flew to Winnipeg this evening for a union Convention. Upon boarding, i noticed that two rows in front if me, the oxygen masks were hanging. Maintenance boarded and solved the problem by stuffing the masks back up and taping the panel shut (the panel wouldn't stay closed).

I wondered what I'd do if that was my row. I've never, thankfully, been on a plane where the masks dropped. If necessary could the passengers in that row easily rip the tape off? They couldn't move seats; it was a full flight. They stayed onboard. I think I probably would have too, against my better judgment.

Would you stay onboard?

Posted by
3390 posts

Yes, I would have stayed.

Back in the early days of deregulation I was sitting very close to the cockpit in a full no-name economy flight pushing back from the gate when we could hear an alarm go off on the other side of the door. The panels opened and the masks dropped. We were delayed by a half hour or so while the ground staff walked through and pushed everything back up.

The worse part was that the masks didn't fall for the seats next to mine -- we looked more closely at the panels and saw that they had been screwed shut. In the event of an actual emergency, there was no way those passengers were going to be able to get their masks.

Posted by
328 posts

I probably would. I was on a very turbulent flight once when masks dropped because of turbulence. We technically didn’t need them but as I was shaking and trying to put it on, flight got smooth. It was during descend and 20 min later we were on the ground.

I have also flown on old planes with side panel by window coming off, leaking AC. You name it!

Once I was on a Delta plane about to leave Tokyo. Then issue came up during taxing. We were told “there is a part malfunctioning on engine. We will wait here to get similar part from other airport in Tokyo”. After 2 hours “we are speaking to Atlanta crew to hopefully get it working”.
At that point I wasn’t so sure I wanted to fly on that plane. After 3 hours on runaway “we are waiting for tow back to gate. This flight is being cancelled’. Then I was mad as I had to scramble to get on a new flight.

I trust pilots won’t fly a plane that is not safe.

Posted by
83 posts

I've been on two flights where some masks dropped when the panel opened after a slam landing. Both were irish airlines, both female pilots - surely a coincedence.....

But random opening like that isn't really a safety issue - the question is how much tape was used and how difficult to get it open would it be?

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