EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Flight Attendant Current
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown
General Declared Emergency
Manuals; Human Factors; Aircraft; Company Policy
Early into the flight I received a call from the Captain stating that we would be [diverting to a nearby airport] due to a message alert saying to land immediately. He said that this would be a normal landing and I rephrased it as a question 'we should prepare the cabin for a normal landing?' and his answer was; 'Yes.' The call ended shortly after. The airplane began to descend shortly after an announcement to the passengers from the pilots. The landing gear was extended much earlier than usual before landing. Upon landing a number of fire personnel met the aircraft off the runway. Although emergency fire personnel were in the jet bridge; the passengers deplaned normally. Shortly after landing the pilots went below the aircraft to inspect something under the wing. [Since I was] not being given much information; I discussed the event with the fire and Maintenance personnel. The issue they described was much more severe in nature than I was told on the aircraft. According to Maintenance the light/message that came on indicated the possible loss of critical aircraft systems and could have been catastrophic if failure did occur on landing. This incident indicated serious problems on the aircraft that sounded; to me; like an emergency; i.e. 'Any event in which the safe operation of the flight is in doubt.' When the pilots returned from inspecting the aircraft I asked; 'What were you looking at?' The Captain replied; 'Nothing.' There was no official debriefing after the event by the Captain. The First Officer did try to inform us about what occurred; but the Captain seemed to be keeping him from speaking with us. After the event the pilots had a couple of extensive private conversations in the back of the aircraft when the only other people onboard were the other Flight Attendant and me. The failure here on the part of the Captain is addressed in our Flight Attendant Manual (FAM). 'The PIC will ensure the flight attendants are advised as to the extent of the emergency or irregular operation.' None of the SOP briefing items were discussed and they should have been as this was; at the very least; an abnormal situation. The time between the Captain's call to me and our landing would have been more than sufficient to prepare the cabin for an abnormal landing. As stated in our manual; 'In an emergency; flight attendants are responsible for ensuring the safety of the passengers and preserving the integrity of the cabin.' With the information provided and the attitude of the Captain appearing to discourage communication; I did not feel I could do so. There was a critical failure of the communication process between crew members of this event. There was a lack of CRM during this abnormal/emergency situation. Throughout the whole beginning of the trip the Captain acted like it was a large strain to communicate with us and that attitude extended into this emergency situation in the air. The cabin crew and passengers were given identical sets of information over the PA and even the experienced fliers onboard knew something was not right. I had quite a few people ask me directly; 'We could tell the pilot was lying; what really happened?' and my honest answer was that I was not given any other information.
A Flight Attendant aboard an ERJ-170 reported the Captain failed to properly brief and prepare the aircraft for what the reporter later determined had been a possibly serious anomaly for which the flight diverted to a nearby airport where they were met by CFR and maintenance personnel.