Lights on? Lights off? A330 YYZ-LHR
January 6th, 2009
After take-off last week, once the FA were up and about, they realized that the reading lights weren't working quite right - turning off and on at (seemingly) random. Very annoying but it didn't take too long to figure out that the controls were out of sync. The FA's had to go to each pax, ask if they wanted their reading light off or on and then go the the pax exactly TWO ROWS BEHIND AND SWITCH THE LIGHT OFF OR ON!
They finally made an announcement not to touch your reading light button unless the pax two rows in front of your requested you to.
Although not a system integral to keeping the aircraft in the air, it got me thinking about thgis person and why, when fixing or adjusting the lighting system, he didn't CHECK to make sure it was in working order when he was finished?
Amusing at the time, but got me thinking about what else this person may have "fixed" on the aircraft...
I wonder if the snafu has to do with differences in the way Air Canada numbers seat rows on its aircraft vs. Airbus' definition.
FewMiles..
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c.
This on an A321. By the way, the seats -- yecchh!
The Aircraft Cabin -with respect to this system- is essentially a large network or LAN. This LAN is further divided into 7 LANs each with a Zone Bridging Unit that controls so many seat rows. There are 8 media servers and other systems that these ZBU's and SEU's communicate with.
To facilitate this communication each unit is supplied with an IP address. It sounds as if some seat rows in a zone were not recognized for whatever reason on system power up and consequently the rest of the seat groups were given the wrong IP address. In any case it is a failure that likely was not the result of "the half-assed job someone at AC must have done".
I would suspect that most of you are familiar with computers/networks and the hardware/software problems encountered with their use. Most of you can understand that tech hardware/software developers have not yet developed a perpetual motion machine or anything with perpetual reliability. Vaab makes the assumption that this system failed prior to the last maintenance check on it...unlikely. It is more likely that this fault occurred just prior to or during Vaab's flight.
This fault may have been rectified with a simple rebooting of the system, perhaps a reloading of software or even some component changes. With the exception of the last one some of these may have and should have been attempted by the In-Charge.
I'm sorry to tell you that most airlines (if any) can't afford to implement the system redundancy philosophy- employed by Air Canada in its critical aircraft systems and all safety areas- to "passenger convenience items". So when something breaks in the cabin it may be an inconvenience to our customers until aircraft down time, parts and manpower are available to fix it. As for the more critical aircraft systems: if our assumed incompetent friend about whom Vaab wonders..."what else this person may have "fixed" on the aircraft..." did have his hands in the flight deck don't worry. As well as the inherent redundency in aircraft systems Air Canada's Technical Services Quality Assurance system won't let the most competent technician work on the simplest part of a vital aircraft system without another qualified technician inspecting his work and signing for the work with his colleague.
I'm sorry at times our product is not up to expectations and can admit I am occasionally embarrassed by the state of a cabin on an aircraft departing my base. I can, however, assure you that never have I seen any of our Aircraft leave for a flight in an unairworthy condition.
Hoping all your flights are comfortable and safe,
ACAV in YVR http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
FewMiles..
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[ Unofficial Guide to AAdvantage (http://www.fewmiles.net/AA)] [ Unofficial oneworld Info Desk (http://www.fewmiles.net/oneworld)]
Did row one have control of the plane in front, and then the cockpit the last row in the next plane in the pattern? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Too funny.
Originally posted by Andrew Webber:
My question is, did the passenger in row 2 have control of the flight deck instrumentation?
andrew
[This message has been edited by Andrew Webber (edited 10-17-2002).]
andrew
[This message has been edited by Andrew Webber (edited 10-17-2002).]
This fault may have been rectified with a simple rebooting of the system, perhaps a reloading of software or even some component changes. With the exception of the last one some of these may have and should have been attempted by the In-Charge.
I was on an A340 in July 1999 (I received a comp into J). The aircraft was barely a week old. There were many problems with the lights and the entertainment system. Nothing worked until the in-charge re-booted the system.
When the system was being re-booted, a Microsoft Windows Logo appeared on everyone's screen! Everyone laughed!
CrampedInY
[This message has been edited by CrampedInY (edited 10-18-2002).]
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