B737-800
Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Maintenance Action
Human Factors
Before boarding; I walked to main cabin to deliver catering items. While there I noticed that one of the oxygen walk-around masks did not appear to be correctly connected to the bottle. As I have been finding these regularly; I took it upon myself to check more closely and found that both oxygen bottles in the aft cabin did not have the mask tubing properly connected to the bottle. I told the crew of my discovery and shared my previous experience with them. I suggested that they look more carefully during preflight checks because sometimes it is not immediately evident that the tubing is not connected. I reported the discrepancy to the Captain and asked that the issue be entered in the aircraft logbook. He did and called Maintenance who came and rectified the issue during boarding. Flight attendant training should include emphasis on checking tubing connection on oxygen bottles during every pre-flight check. As mentioned; it is sometimes difficult to see if the tubing is correctly attached because of the confined locations of emergency equipment and other factors.
A Flight Attendant on a B737-800 found that both oxygen bottles in the aft cabin did not have the mask tubing properly connected to the bottle.