Life raft positioning

[Melburnian1]

On Sunday 26 February 2023, an unhelpful QFd cabin crew operated QF445, the 1300 hours early afternoon with B738 VH-VZW from Sydney down to Melbourne.

Yesterday afternoon, the cheapest one way Y fare available was an outrageous $700 on this flight. Business class was booked out. No reward seats were available in either class.

The aircraft arrived in SYD at 1152 hours, only two minutes late as QF517 from BNE, meaning a generous available turnaround time.

Boarding commenced early, but staff did not assist passengers in scanning boarding passes, despite some travellers having difficulty.

There was the all-too-frequent lack of enforcement of a 'reasonable' amount of baggage being brought on board as carry-on, despite stipulated limits. Enforcement takes time, and time is money, but surely this can be a safety issue that's been raised many times before, and not just on blogs like 'AFF'?

An inflatable yellow life raft occupied a whole business class overhead bin above 3A/3C. This meant no space for some late boarding J class passengers' belongings. Why can't this item be stowed in the forward economy section and retrieved as necessary by cabin crew, and easily re-stowed not far down the aisle? If travellers are paying for J class domestic travel, the fares are stratospheric, so the least that could occur is for there to be available overhead bin space.

Initially the female captain announced a '10 to 15 minute delay' as there was a 'technical issue'. Later (perhaps a different issue) the J toilet was discovered to be defective. My source wondered why the latter in particular wasn't checked before passengers boarded, as there hadn't been anyone use it until when the defect was found.

Eventually, takeoff was at 1357 with MEL at gate arrival1510 hours, 35 late.

Taxiing to gate 1, it then took 10 minutes for the aerobridge to connect and the front door to be opened. By that time, the rear stairs were operable, so Y class passengers sitting in the back rows got to the exit first.

Just another late Sydney-Melbourne flight with some arguably preventable problems that result in passengers paying super high QFd fares being delayed.

 

[eminere]

An inflatable yellow life raft occupied a whole business class overhead bin above 3A/3C. This meant no space for some late boarding J class passengers' belongings. Why can't this item be stowed in the forward economy section and retrieved as necessary by cabin crew, and easily re-stowed not far down the aisle? If travellers are paying for J class domestic travel, the fares are stratospheric, so the least that could occur is for there to be available overhead bin space.

Is VH-VZW normally deployed on international routes? I noticed the presence of a raft too in the business cabin lockers on a recent flight to NAN. Have yet to encounter one on a domestic flight.

 

[algae]

Is VH-VZW normally deployed on international routes? I noticed the presence of a raft too in the business cabin lockers on a recent flight to NAN. Have yet to encounter one on a domestic flight.

Looks like it flew a lot of flights to NZ in the first half of Feb. But those aren't exactly long flights (however as they're over water flights maybe requirements are different??)

 

[Quickstatus]

@Melburnian1

Im not sure if you are referring to aircraft life rafts or some other non aircraft equipment.
Usually the aircraft life rafts are in its own compartment above the aisle and not in the overhead bins.
These are massive things. I don't think they will actually fit in an overhead.

You can see at the top left corner of the photo (of a 737-800 life-raft) are the overhead bins.
Video here

 

[Melburnian1]

It was 'yellow' and apparently able to be stored in a J bin, as reported above.

I wasn't on board so hard to supply further information. My source isn't the type who takes photos of everything, so no visual evidence unfortunately.

 

[justinbrett]

It was 'yellow' and apparently able to be stored in a J bin, as reported above.

I wasn't on board so hard to supply further information. My source isn't the type who takes photos of everything, so no visual evidence unfortunately.

Sounds like the cabin crew equipment. Not a life raft - that's not going to fit in an overhead compartment .

To answer the question, J has far fewer pax than Y, there should be ample storage if J bins are used by J pax only, even with a locker taken out of action for emergency equipment. On QF the entitlement for J is no more than Y.

 

[docjames]

The life raft (if that’s what it was) would Presumably have to be stored within a certain proximity of the door hence in J not Y…..

It may be an aircraft typically used domestically was repurposed for international / able to be rotated into international (over water) flights hence needing life raft carriage.

It’s interesting they still have fleet without the dedicated overhead storage for the life rafts.

I don’t think a 35min delay is particularly notable, and the “high priced airfares” is normal for a late purchase ticket (supply v demand).

 

[Quickstatus]

It may be an aircraft typically used domestically was repurposed for international / able to be rotated into international (over water) flights hence needing life raft carriage.

Aircraft life rafts have always had their own built in compartment. As in photo (video link also posted) above.

These are FAA regulated/approved 56 person life rafts and I think they look like these when inflated.
They weigh 43kg. 1.2m long, 55cm wide and 15cm think and are self inflating. No way they can fit in an overhead.

 

[justinbrett]

You could barely fit a sleeping bag in the overhead locker - how do you expect to fit a sturdy life raft for multiple pax up there? Just think about it.

 

[eminere]

You could barely fit a sleeping bag in the overhead locker - how do you expect to fit a sturdy life raft for multiple pax up there? Just think about it. .

Calm down. Not everyone is an expert on aircraft equipment. If it's not a raft then it was something else. Whatever it was, it was brightly coloured and eye-catching and large enough that I noticed it in the lockers across the aisle from where I was seated on my flight.

 

[Quickstatus]

If it's not a raft then it was something else

I wonder if it belonged to a Cabin crew?
Afterall they usually have first dibs of the overheads

 

[Lynda2475]

Coming back from WLG-MEL in late January, the last over head bin in J above 3AC had something large and yellow stuffed inside (i too assumed a raft or something) , such that next to it there was only enough room for a small handbag or laptop bag.

J was full but everyone had stuck to limits so bags could be accomodated in other bins, but it is annoying that between safety demo stuff and whatever the yellow thing was, not all bins were available.

 

[RooFlyer]

how do you expect to fit a sturdy life raft for multiple pax up there

No-one said it was sturdy, or for multiple passengers or even that it was an 'official' life raft. It was imply described as "An inflatable yellow life raft".

These are FAA regulated/approved 56 person life rafts and I think they look like these when inflated.
They weigh 43kg. 1.2m long, 55cm wide and 15cm think and are self inflating. No way they can fit in an overhead.

I can't see the relevance of some "FAA regulated/approve life rafts", with their inflated dimensions to the discussion here. Something large and yellow was seen by a couple of people and they thought it was a life raft (of some size). Need not have been a 'regularly carried' life raft - might have been one of the crew's ... I dunno ... plastic blow up paddle pool???

I think the point was that it was large, unusual, and taking up J bin space. Assuming it wasn't a pax who stuffed it up there, then it was crew (or the airline) and maybe they might have found somewhere else to stow it.

 

[Quickstatus]

I can't see the relevance of some "FAA regulated/approve life rafts",

The initial assumption/speculation was that it was a life raft.

My initial question was :
"Im not sure if you are referring to aircraft life rafts or some other non aircraft equipment".

And I went to check whether the dimensions were feasible or not.

plastic blow up paddle pool???

Which was why I also said it may have been some other item such as cabin crew belonging
Maybe MardiGras item?

 

[justinbrett]

No-one said it was sturdy, or for multiple passengers or even that it was an 'official' life raft. It was imply described as "An inflatable yellow life raft".

You really think QF are carrying individual non-official life rafts?

This is getting ridiculous.

Most airlines I've flown on have a locker at the front reserved for crew equipment. I'm not sure why this is suddenly so controversial.

 

[Melburnian1]

Most airlines I've flown on have a locker at the front reserved for crew equipment. I'm not sure why this is suddenly so controversial.

If you re-read my original post, I explained it was apparently taking up all the bin space of that above row 3 on one side.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It sounds like it was safety equipment of some sort. Not cabin crew personal possessions.

If it’s safety related it needs to be near the crew and near the door. Probably row three is the first locker big enough for it. Maybe it is a supplementary raft or other equipment for longer flights that particular aircraft might operate which are substantially over water. Maybe it just stays there rather than being loaded before each relevant flight.

Any further back you’d risk impeding access to the equipment and egress of pax in the main cabin.

35 minute delay on SYD-MEL these days is not noteworthy. It’s pretty common

The other day QF and VA were asking $700 and $600 respectively for economy one way SYD-MEL, Rex business was $349. Pays to shop around.

 

[Lynda2475]

On the flight I was on, it certainly didnt look like crew luggage, Ive never noticed anything like it on domestic version of the 737s, bright yellow.

But it certainly didnt delay the flight I was on.

 

[RooFlyer]

You really think QF are carrying individual non-official life rafts?

This is getting ridiculous.

Most airlines I've flown on have a locker at the front reserved for crew equipment. I'm not sure why this is suddenly so controversial.

To the first - I have no idea. Again, 2 reports of something large and yellow and thought to be life rafts. I conjected that they might have been inflatable paddle pools. No mention at all by me of “non official life rafts” . Calm down and hold off inventing things.

It’s ‘controversial’ because something large was occupying an entire locker in business class. We don’t know what it was, but it was occupying space, supposedly reserved for customers. What it was or might have been is pretty irrelevant to the point being made, that there was something large and yellow there, which sorta inconvenienced or surprised the customer - that’s all. It wasn’t said to be the end of the world nor said to be a terrible thing - its just something unusual that was reported by one member here and confirmed ( or similar) by another member here. Not much different from unusual things we see on any flight from time to time.

Everyone take a deep breath …

 

[Quickstatus]

It's a mystery. Wonder what it is?.