Flight Attendant Current
Distraction; Communication Breakdown; Training / Qualification; Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Security
General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Company Policy; MEL
We boarded the aircraft and were informed the aft interphone was inoperative and deferred. The three flight attendants discussed this and I told the Captain I was not comfortable with a deferred interphone. He immediately said 'No problem. I'll call Maintenance.' He did and it was fixed. Although I realize an inoperative interphone is a high priority Maintenance issue I question the safety of it ever being deferrable. There are many different scenarios but lets take for instance a situation where people rush the cockpit and take out the flight crew. We see this from the aft of the aircraft but without an interphone are unable to communicate the situation to the cockpit. Yes; we can use the Evac Alarm telling the cockpit 'something' is very wrong and they will immediately land the aircraft. However the loud Evac alarm could be potentially harmful as it alerts everyone and could make the situation even worse. A quick discreet interphone call could be needed. On the particular day my interphone was deferred it was incredibly windy. If we had needed to grab the megaphone since the PA was inoperative just getting to it would have been dangerous with potential injuries. These types of scenarios are endless. We have learned a lot from 9/11. We must always be prepared and ready for anything. We have learned to expect the unexpected. I would ask the FAA to reconsider allowing any interphone on any narrow body aircraft to be deferred for any amount of time. We need to have all our tools available to meet the unexpected and the interphone is one of those vital tools for flight attendants. Thank you for the consideration. I hope this is the correct venue for this type of review as my supervisor suggested it.
An A319 aft flight attendant interphone was MEL'ed inoperative but for security reasons the flight attendant crew asked that it be repaired. The Captain made the request and Maintenance complied.