Jetstar - to crosscheck or not to crosscheck?
 

On Friday I flew on JQ for the first time since Jan 08 on a BNK-SYD A320. I noticed the Cabin Manager made the announcement of "Cabin Crew arm your doors", same as Qantas

However, the last time I flew JQ SYD-DPS-SYD on an A330 in Jan 08, I clearly remember the announcement being "Cabin Crew arm doors and crosscheck" and seeing the crew crosscheck after arming, same as Virgin Blue.

Is this a difference between A320 and A330 ops, or have JQ stopped cross checking after arming/disarming the doors. If so, why?

Is the crosscheck only a Jetstar thing? In Australia, i've only ever flown Qantas and a few times on an A330, and they never said "and crosscheck" after "arm doors". Of course, the last 330 flight for me was at least 3 years ago.

On VB flights its always 'arm/disarm doors and cross check' I think the cross check is important with something like arming/disarming the slides as its a second pair of eyes going over to ensure it is correct I mean in an emergency situation if the doors arent armed correctly you have a disaster on your hands and arent able to either evacuate the aircraft as quick or safely as if the slides are deployed properly also if they arent disarmed correctly on arrival at the gate you have a mamouth safety issue if a slide depolys.

I think you'll find that the crew do infact cross check the doors and report this via the interphone directly to the Cabin Manager/Supervisor. Could be wrong but I'm sure I've heard this procedure used on many flights on both airlines.

Jack; at Jetstar we used to crosscheck after arming or disarming doors on all aircraft types, but have since dropped the requirement to crosscheck. A lot of our Standard Operating Procedures and Emergency Procedures are in line with Qantas to maintain a Group-wide standard, but that crosschecking procedure was one difference we had.

Combined with bringing that into line with Qantas, the other reason is that we operate an all-Airbus fleet and all Airbus doors are cleverly designed to automatically disarm if the door is opened from the outside in armed mode. This prevents inadvertent slide deployment by ground staff on the outside and avoiding serious injury or death in the process (the door's power-assist opening and inflatable slide/raft could do some damage).

So this feature is an added backup if a door is accidentally left armed after the disarm call is given. Plus, cabin crew will never open or close a door in normal operation (only in an emergency evacuation), this is ground staff's responsibility, so there's no chance of blowing a slide from crew opening the door when they shouldn't.

Having said all that, most cabin crew I work with, and myself, will still glance at the opposing crew member's door to double check the door mode just to be sure - but no official cross-over happens.

Boeings do the same thing.

Thanks for the reply! With the automatic disarming when opened from the outside, doesn't surprise me that the crosscheck was dropped.

Which Boeings?

the 737's doesn't. Although, with the girt bar design and the little orange strip across the window when armed, to me it seems an unlikely door for an accidental slide blow

From memory NONE of the boeings have an automatic disarm.The only thing that saves an airbus is a red light comes on in the door if you start to open it from the outside and it is still armed.But they might have changed it on the later Busses

Proceedure says it shouldnt happen, I mean we are as ground crew are not to even put up the rear stairs until cabin crew have 'cracked' the door same with boarding gate staff and the aerobridge.