No Aircraft
Flight Attendant Current
Training / Qualification; Confusion; Distraction
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor
Company Policy; Procedure
Flight Attendants in the Recurrent Training program for 2015 are conducting an aircraft validation drill using sandblasted safety/sunglasses. This is supposed to represent a smoke filled environment; however the condition is so dark flight attendants can barely see based on the aircraft mock-up lighting. When the flight attendant goes to assess conditions they can't accurately figure out which condition is posted outside their door (flight attendants think the poster is a nighttime condition when they assess); however they open the door anyway. This training is concerning as they are not responding to opening the scenario by seeing a daytime photograph of a clear unobstructed path. They are responding based on watching a video; and not to how they were trained to evacuate an airplane. They are not responding based on seeing an unobstructed path to evacuate or none of the other aircraft exits are usable.
During annual recurrent training; a smoke filled cabin environment is simulated by flight attendants wearing sandblasted glasses which causes incorrect assessments of outside evacuation conditions.