B737-700
Flight Attendant Current
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown
Human Factors
We had finished boarding; and I walked through the aft part of the aircraft closing bins and checking to see that carryon items were properly stowed under the seats. I noticed a passenger with a car seat in the row of seats forward of the exit row. One Flight Attendant was at the rear of the aircraft walking forward doing her passenger count. As we passed each other in the aisle; I inquired about the passenger in the row forward of the exit row with the car seat. She said she was taking care of it; or had taken care of it and then mentioned something about -300 and -500 aircraft. I told her I was pretty certain the rule about placement of a CRS applied to all of our aircraft models; not just -300 and -500. She continued to the front of the aircraft; and I continued to the rear of the aircraft. I looked up the rule in my manual; just to be sure. While doing the emergency demonstration; I noticed the car seat was still in the row of seats directly in front of the emergency exit row. I mentioned this to the Lead Flight Attendant when she came to the back of the aircraft during her walk through and showed her the rule for CRS placement in my manual. We agreed the seat could not stay there and discussed the plan for moving it. We were not able to have it moved before we took off. The passenger with the car seat switched seats with 2 other passengers during the flight after the fasten seatbelt sign had been turned off.
At the completion of the boarding process and immediately prior to push; the Flight Attendant informed me that there was a car seat in the row in front of the emergency exit row. We discussed that we believed the rule only applied to the 300/500 series due to the operation of the door of the 700. During the conversation; the forward door was closed and we proceeded with our safety demo. Upon my walk thru; I consulted with the B Flight Attendant; who the C Flight Attendant had also told and had pulled out her manual. We checked the manual and confirmed that the rule also applied to the 700 for some reason. As I came back thru the cabin; I informed the passenger that we would need to move them (family of 3) and asked the row in front of them if they would be willing to switch as it was an almost completely full flight. At that point; we received the cleared for departure ding from the cockpit. We took off and immediately upon reaching a safe altitude; we did the moved all 6 passengers.Re-training; emphasis on the policy; as we all learned about this policy; we were told that it's to prevent a thrown emergency exit door from landing] on top of a child in a car seat. This leads to some confusion as to why this rule applies to the 700 series aircraft.
B737-700 Flight Attendant notes a car seat one row forward of the emergency exit row during cabin walk through which is not permitted. The other flight attendants are not sure and the Manual is checked. Before the passengers can be switched the aircraft is ready for takeoff and does so. The passengers are switched once safely airborne.