United Airlines is telling flight attendants to stop leaving passengers behind on empty planes. Customers fall asleep in their seats, everyone gets off the plane – and flight attendants have just been leaving them there. Sometimes the passengers are left behind in the lavatory.
The airline is working with its cabin crew union “to get to the bottom of what ‘human factors’ could be behind this worrying trend.” In fact, it’s actually illegal – FAA regulations require a minimum crew complement onboard whenever there are passengers. And flight attendants want these rules – the idea is that flight attendants are required for passenger safety (this protects their jobs).
Of course the union says leaving passengers on planes isn’t their fault, it’s the airline’s, because having cabin cleaners onboard while passengers deplane is distracting.
“Even the simplest distraction or loss of focus due to external factors can result in us missing a passenger asleep in their seat or one in the lavatory,” the union warned its members in a recent internal memo.
“One concern we have continued to bring forward is the presence of cabin cleaners onboard and throughout the aircraft at a time when Flight Attendants are trying to conduct the sweep,” the memo continued.
“It has become more routine for cleaners to board the aircraft during passenger deplaning, potentially obstructing our view or creating an inadvertent distraction.”
American Airlines cabin crew received a memo in late December from their union warning that this seems to be happening more and more, and constitutes a violation of federal rules (“minimum crew violation”) since a minimum number of flight attendants must be on board an aircraft whenever there are passengers there. And the union and airline have concluded this is happening because flight attendants are failing to perform their security checks.
These procedures are required to ensure that no passenger is ever left onboard. Check lavatories, and make sure no passengers are sleeping in or under seats. This is a critical final check to confirm that no one has been overlooked, and this ensures that you and your crew aren’t at risk of violating a FAR…Leaving passengers on the aircraft unattended is a significant safety and security concern and we appreciate everyone’s shared efforts in ensuring this doesn’t happen.
Flight attendants were warned that all crew on a flight are responsible for the post-flight check, and that the lead flight attendant must do a final walkthrough prior exiting the aircraft to check for any passengers still on board.
Famously, an Air Canada passenger from Quebec City to Toronto fell asleep on a plane in 2019 – slept through touch down, gate arrival, and all the other customers getting off the plane. When she woke up, the plane had been towed away from the gate to be parked overnight. She was in a totally dark aircraft with no way off.
Her cell phone was out of battery and she couldn’t call for help. She opened the aircraft’s door but it was too treacherous a drop onto concrete to make it. Ultimately she flagged down a worker driving a baggage cart who went for help. Obviously that’s a situation to be avoided, but so is having a passenger on a plane between flights.
I’ve been known to doze on on the ground during long waits to push back and taxi. In fact, after sleeping just four hours on Wednesday night I did so in a long queue to takeoff from Chicago O’Hare on Thursday. But I’m always rustled awake as we finally depart. I’ve never slept past touchdown so this is hard for me to imagine, but there are heavy sleepers out there. Goodness knows I’ve passed my stop on DC’s metro, but just because I was focused working and didn’t look up – never because I had fallen asleep.
Sounds like they’re trying to do better. And if it really is a federal law violation, then, as Jim Carey’s iconic character, Fletcher Reede, yells over the phone to his client in the 1997 classic film, Liar Liar: “Quit breakin’ the law, a..hole(s)!”
Could be worse. A 2012 BBC story “Paris plane passenger flown back to Lahore while asleep” tells of a woman on your favorite airline, Pakistan, who slept through the landing in France and only woke up when she was on the way back to her point of origin. Once again in Pakistan the airline sent her back to Paris on another carrier and at last report was “investigating”. I don’t think they’re going to give her any frequent flier credit for that one.
I don’t see how this can happen. Would the flight attendants do a final ‘sweep’ of the aircraft before de-planing themselves.? Like, wouldn’t they go down the aisle(s) to the rear and return to the front? At least to make sure nothing was left behind on the seats. What are they doing, disembarking before the passengers?
Another case of flight attendants that can’t do the most simple thing. Easy, there’s always two flight attendants coming from the back. One takes the left side of the plane, one takes the right. As they leave check the lav and checks seating as they make their way forward. Flight attendant in the front checks front lav.
People need to be responsible for their own well being. Flight attendants are not babysitters! Didn’t the cleaning crew notice these people?
I always figured 1990 was a union male FA.
@George N Romney. When were you a flight attendant and for what airline?
You are such a know-it-all please tell us about your qualifications.
Ah just as we all thought, just a blathering fool.
If someone cleaning the cabin is such a distraction you can’t wake someone up who is asleep, imagine how overwhelmed you’re going to feel when deplaning following a water landing. Get a new job.
at the end of the day, possibly a 15 hour day, they just want to get off the plane and get some air..
after every passenger is off, if a lav is locked, it’s likely to be overlooked as it might be a crewmember taking care of business before the road trip to the hotel, or home…
Sh__ happens.
This is plain negligence on the part of the crew.
I can confirm having cleaning crew onboard during deplaning is pretty hectic. Flew on United on the 757-300 last month, and while deplaning at ORD, the cleaning crew came onboard. They had trash cans, cleaning spray, and even vacuums in the aisle while deplaning. It was hard enough just trying to get everyone moving let alone doing a whole aircraft check. I could see how in a time crunch crew might miss someone unintentionally. After all aren’t they not paid for time on the ground?
Maybe if the airline experiencing record profits provided the flight attendants with a contract (now expired for almost 4 years) they’d be a little more vigilant. This is a non story.
I think the problem is that the cleaning crew boards before passengers disembark and stay aboard after the crew leaves.
Key word here is union.
The flight attendants don’t GAF and the union protects poor job performance.
I have experienced delayed boarding more than once because there were no crew members on board.
My wife is s flight attendant for 40 years. She is normally purser. (Lead flight attendant) she always does a complete walk around before leaving the plane. She told me it is their responsibility, and no crew is supposed to leave before all passengersare off. She checks lavs, doors and all rows. There is no excuse to leave a passenger on the plane. I have heard several flight attendants tell me that.
Flight attendants who are literally too lazy and incapable to look at seats to see if someone is sleeping in them want me to believe they are going to “deliver a baby” or “drag me out of a burning plane.” Yeah, sure.
One of the reasons FAs leave sleeping pax onboard is that they’re DISTRACTED by the cleaning crew?? Whomever said this should be ashamed of themselves. I got news for ya, boys and girls.
An FA who comes from the back to exit the plane could LOOK AROUND as the stroll progresses. It might add 90 seconds on to the trip. If someone wants to paint FAs as so easily distracted, I have a problem with them being in charge during an emergency.