Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Attendant Current
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Aircraft; Staffing; Procedure
During preflight; discovered both O2 walk around bottles mounted in the aft section of aircraft with masks attached to the incorrect port.  Masks found attached to the (Lo) setting when they should have instead been connected to the (Hi) setting.  I corrected both bottles by attaching each hose adapter to the Hi setting.  This issue brings forward two significant risks. While flight attendants are responsible for ensuring masks are corrected to the appropriate setting; it is highly unlikely that a flight attendant switched or incorrectly connected these masks.  More likely; both bottles were provisioned to the aircraft incorrectly by Line Maintenance.  Since these types of bottles came to Company X during the merger with Company Y; it is suspected that Legacy Company Line Maintenance Techs are unfamiliar with the correct setting of the mask.  The hazard is that a passenger in medical distress; or flight attendant during a decompression will not receive an adequate flow of O2 -- placing both at increased risk for injury and/or death.This event also further underscores the substandard (or lack of thorough) pre-flight checks accomplished by flight attendants. It is also highly likely the majority of Legacy Company flight attendants are still unfamiliar with these types of bottles due to inferior training; thus increasing the risk for error during pre-flight.
Air carrier Flight Attendant reported on pre-flight that both O2 walk around bottles in the aft section had their masks attached to the low flow port instead of the Hi flow port as required.