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On Feb. 9 a Challenger 604 crashed onto a Florida Interstate. The jet lost both engines and hit a concrete barrier before the aircraft burst into flames. Tragically, both pilots died in the accident. That they maneuvered the aircraft onto the highway without killing the passengers or anyone on the ground was nothing short of a miracle.RELATED STORY:Crew received 3 low engine oil pressure warnings moments before deadly Challenger 604 crashThe cabin attendant and the two passengers escaped out of the baggage compartment and through the compartment door out onto the grassy shoulder. In the video, they were seen running from the aircraft and notifying witnesses that the pilots were still inside.
A local pilot, Capt. Shem Malmquist was interviewed by Fox4 Naples and mentioned that corporate aircraft don't all have to have a flight attendant and doing so can save lives.
Let's take a look into this further.
Federal Aviation Administration and European Union Aviation Safety Agency regulations both state that a flight attendant is not necessary on private aircraft with 19 seats or fewer. So should an operator or owner choose to, they can carry a flight engineer instead or have the co-pilot act as a server, if required. That is questionable in itself in terms of safety. Would you like to see the co-pilot leave his seat to get you a coffee and a meal?
What confounds this further is that most private jets are configured with 19 seats or under by the manufacturers, which means that trained flight attendants are often not required onboard. However, manufacturers including Gulfstream do offer evacuation training for some flight attendants on aircraft type.
A commercial airline-trained flight attendant has training in safety equipment, safety and emergency procedures, aircraft specifics, fire training and aviation first aid. They also undertake training in dangerous goods, security, survival, self-defense and crew resource management. Service is secondary to the safety of the passengers and crew onboard and only requires a few days of training in the usual airline six-week course. Added to this, they take recurrent training every year to check that they maintain safety standards and also keep their license.RELATED STORY:The history of the flight attendant - an evolving role in aviation
A corporate flight attendant working on private jets is not required to be trained, although some do pay for their own training with the likes of Air Care or FACTS training to fly safely. That also makes them more hireable to operators as fully trained crew. However, this often means that trained corporate flight attendants request a higher salary, and rightly so.
FAA/EASA regulations allows operators to have untrained attendants onboard. These are sometimes called cabin servers, cabin hosts or inflight service providers. Their only duty is the service onboard. They are not responsible for safety in any shape or form and are not allowed to operate the aircraft exits or doors. The pilots will take that responsibility. The emphasis is on the luxury experience, the cabin ambiance and the catering and service provided.
Typically, untrained attendants will come from a hotel, restaurant or yachting background. Sometimes, they will be paid less than a formal flight attendant, but not always. Some private jet operators may not look for trained flight attendants nor will they pay for training. A private jet passenger could assume that a staff member in the cabin of an aircraft would be trained. The only way to know would be to ask the operator or cabin attendant if they are trained. Most passengers would be completely unaware that their onboard attendant had no safety or first aid training and would not know what to do in an emergency. While rare, as we see here with this accident, private jets are not immune to accidents. One could argue that the practice of using untrained flight attendants is unethical. What would happen, like in the Challenger crash, is that the pilots were not there to open the door as they were incapacitated. A cabin server may not know how to open the doors or exits or know how to instinctively act in an emergency scenario. If there were a fire in the galley, what does a server do? It is unlikely they could put the fire out which puts all onboard at risk. If a passenger were to have a heart attack or stroke onboard, the cabin server may not know what to do, unless they have some basic first aid training. The passenger could die onboard and the only other option would be for one of the flight crew (who have some first aid training) to leave the cockpit, which is another risk.If a planned or unplanned evacuation is needed, trained flight attendants know what to do. They are trained to react to emergencies quickly and efficiently and save as many lives as possible. They know how to put out fires on board should one occur. Flight attendants learn about various medical emergencies and how to treat them, everything from burns to childbirth, to performing CPR and using a defibrillator.
Private jets and flights don't come cheap and many passengers will assume the cabin crew is fully trained, but this might not be the case. In a business that is so regulated it is difficult to understand why this is allowed. It is also an expensive business, so one would think that saving costs on crew or training would not be necessary. But would some private jet operators put a price on safety? In an ideal world, all private jet crew should be fully trained and know what to do in any emergent situation. Until such a requirement exists, lives could be at risk.