Dash 8-400
Flight Attendant Current
Flight Attendant Airline Total 1; Flight Attendant Total 13
Confusion; Distraction; Training / Qualification
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; General Maintenance Action
Equipment / Tooling; Human Factors
During pre-flight; aft galley; lower doghouse drawer; aircraft right; Q400; one of the large portable oxygen bottles (POBs) gauge was reading empty. I immediately picked up the PA and announced to Captain; who was loading his bags in the front of the cabin; that one of my O2 bottles was empty. Sorry. (We were 45 minutes before departure; 15 minutes before boarding. if I remember correctly.) He called Maintenance or company personnel. While on the phone with them; he came to the aft galley to investigate. He was bent over; checking the bottles and answering questions on the phone. About ten minutes later; something made me look at the bottle again to make sure it was indeed empty. When I opened the drawer; I noticed the green-in-line-flow-indicator was showing on the other bottle. I was confused for a minute. Looked at the gauge. It was also empty. It was turned on. I turned it off and called the Captain on the interphone; and informed him. I assume the Captain accidentally turned on the full bottle. I don't know. He did say they were never trained on how to use our equipment back there other than preflight for repo reasons. We still had the other two mini O2 bottles full.I don't know how the original bottle got emptied. Was it cabin crew the day before? ...a passenger playing around?...ground crew?...catering?...or equipment malfunction? No telling.
A Q400 Flight Attendant discovered one of the aft galley portable oxygen bottles empty and a short while later; after the Captain verified her discovery; the second bottle was found empty.