B757-300
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 129; Flight Crew Type 674
Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Chart Or Publication
While deadheading (not a choice for the report software; so I chose jumpseat) in seat XX; the passenger (federal government employee with a safety background) asked me 'How do you open the overwing exit door? The placard on the door and the safety card show a handle below the door window that isn't there.' I looked at the door; and at the safety card; and at the placard on the door; and there is indeed no handle on the door where the card and safety placard show one below the window. I had to confess that despite now being qualified on the Airbus; that I had flown Boeing aircraft for most of my 30+ years in aviation and that based on what I was seeing; I had no idea of how to open the door given there was no handle on the overwing exit door where it was depicted on both the placard and safety card and every other Boeing door that I knew of had the handle in the position depicted; and thus I had no idea of how to open that door. She didn't either and the passenger in XY couldn't figure it out either. As we approached [Airport Code]; I asked the FA's (Flight Attendants) who had finished their service; how to open these doors. Not one of them knew. I asked the FAs to ask the flight crew to make a write up saying that the placards on the door were incorrect and that the safety cards were incorrect as well; and the FAs; to my knowledge did so. I also suggested that they all do [company reports] as well. I spent the last hour of that flight wondering how we would get those overwing exit doors open in the event of an evacuation and I had no answer. Did the doors open up automatically and not need the handle? How would I or a passenger lift the door as depicted on the placard without a handle as depicted on the placard? No easy answer came to me. After we landed I asked the flight crew if they understood what the FAs had told them and they came back and looked at the placards and safety cards and agreed that they didn't depict what was on the aircraft. In addition; the FO (First Officer) suggested that perhaps the armrest extension on the door was the handle. That makes sense; but that is not what is depicted on the aircraft emergency exit placard or on the safety card. I called [Maintenance Control] to voice a concern that the aircraft are improperly placarded; and possibly not in an FAA approved configuration and proved them with photos of the problem. I also gave pictures to the [Airport Code] Assistant Chief Pilot and voiced my concerns to him. It is my opinion that successful emergency exits are extremely unlikely through 757-300 overwing exits due to the placards not depicting the actual door configuration and operation and the safety card not depicting the actual door configuration and operation. Also; the lack of flight attendant familiarity with the odd doors on 757-300 aircraft means that they would be very unlikely to brief passengers on how to operate the doors correctly; assuming the armrest extension on the door is the bottom handle.
The Emergency Evacuation Safety Briefing card does not describe how to operate the overwing exit door on a 757-300 airplane.