B747-400
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Maintenance Action
Human Factors; Procedure
I was informed from outbound crew taking the plane over that the escape slide was bolted closed. I would not have been able to have been used/opened had we needed it. Preflight inspection somehow missed this. I feel horrible as I take great pride in my work and didn't catch this. The slide looked operational when it was checked.
We arrived at the aircraft later than planned. The other Capt. and I discussed that he would be the operating Captain and I would sit in the Observer seat for this flight. I preformed the exterior safety check and the Exterior Inspection. After I arrived at the upper deck I was informed by the other two crew members that the upper deck checks were complete. Later; as we were preparing the aircraft for the flight; I checked the catering and preformed the main deck procedure. We blocked out at engine start. Following the engine start; the EICAS showed we had a Pack 2 advisory message. I pulled up the QRH and ran the checklist. The other two crew members backed me up. After the checklist was completed; the Captain told the First Officer to call for Taxi. The airplane started moving without the takeoff flaps set and the 'Before Taxi' checklist completed. Fortunately Capt. caught the mistake and corrected it. The rest of the proved to be uneventful until I arrived at my hotel room and received a company email from the Captain and First Officer that they heard from the outbound crew that emergency escape slide was bolted closed. This made the upper deck slide unusable. Apparently it should have been safety pinned. After emailing back and forth with both the Captain and First Officer; they both missed the bolt verses seeing the slide safety wired. Fortunately the ZZZ outbound crew found it and reported this mistake to us so we could learn from it and the mechanics could fix the slide correctly.
B747-400 flight crew reported being notified by the outbound crew that the emergency door slide was bolted closed rendering it unusable.