Life raft positioning

[justinbrett]

It's like some people have never flown before... crew equipment has been stored in lockers well before I started flying.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Uhh you don't put life rafts in the overhead bin. It shouldn't take me to figure this riddle out. It's very simple really, in the ceiling of most 737s there is locker that stows that away.

 

[Quickstatus]

you don't put life rafts in the overhead bin

Yeah, that was sorted out already upthread.
Question is what was it?

That several have seen it on different flights suggests that it's not a one off personal inflatable rubber Duckie of the cabin crew.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Uhh you don't put life rafts in the overhead bin. It shouldn't take me to figure this riddle out. It's very simple really, in the ceiling of most 737s there is locker that stows that away.

I understand on the ‘classic’ 737s they stored life rafts in the overhead lockers. The 738s have them in the ceiling. So possible it could be an extra life raft.

 

[justinbrett]

It is normally things like spare/infant life jackets, megaphones, portable oxygen etc - also the equipment used for the safety briefing is usually in a yellow bag

There's usually a placard on the locker saying crew equipment, not available for passenger use.

 

[milehighclub]

Initially the female captain

FYI - It’s just Captain

 

[milehighclub]

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?

So that is the normal location of one of the rafts, in addition to the ceiling, on Boeing 737-800s with life rafts fitted (books say above row 3 on the left).

Crew can’t move stuff willy nilly.

 

[Quickstatus]

So possible it could be an extra life raft.

normal location of one of the rafts

Mystery solved.

 

[Mattg]

I recall sitting in 3A once on VH-VZT and the overhead locker above my seat was unavailable. As far as I remember, there was indeed a life raft there.

This would only affect the 738s which are used for international flights, i.e. VH-VZF>Z and the VH-XZx series.

 

[Quickstatus]

Next question:

Is this a supplementary smaller raft because QF sometime back increased the number of seats in the B737 by 6.

I note that on international flights 3 of those are blocked off.

 

[milehighclub]

I note that on international flights 3 of those are blocked off.

Crew rest is the reason for the block

 

[Harrison_133]

Not a life raft - that's not going to fit in an overhead compartment .

Except they do…Pacific Blue for example had a couple of aircraft that didn’t have any stowage compartments in the ceiling. The rafts were in the overhead lockers instead.

I understand on the ‘classic’ 737s they stored life rafts in the overhead lockers. The 738s have them in the ceiling. So possible it could be an extra life raft.

As far as I’m aware all Qantas 737s including the “classics” have compartments in the ceiling for rafts, but only the aircraft with PTVs have rafts fitted. If I recall correctly, rafts were taken out of the non-PTV aircraft a while back as a weight saving measure and these aircraft purely operate domestic. VH-VZW, as referenced by Melburnian, is a sky interior aircraft and would have the ceiling compartments.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Except they do…Pacific Blue for example had a couple of aircraft that didn’t have any stowage compartments in the ceiling. The rafts were in the overhead lockers instead.

As far as I’m aware all Qantas 737s including the “classics” have compartments in the ceiling for rafts, but only the aircraft with PTVs have rafts fitted. If I recall correctly, rafts were taken out of the non-PTV aircraft a while back as a weight saving measure and these aircraft purely operate domestic. VH-VZW, as referenced by Melburnian, is a sky interior aircraft and would have the ceiling compartments.

737 ‘classics’ in this sense are the 300/400/500 variants. none of which are in pax service with QF now. It was just an example that prior to ceiling storage they (apparently) had rafts capable of being stored in overhead bins.

 

[Quickstatus]

Why have a life raft in overhead locker when there is a ceiling compartment for it

And I doubt that the ceiling raft can actually fit in an overhead locker

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Why have a life raft in overhead locker when there is a ceiling compartment for it

And I doubt that the ceiling raft can actually fit in an overhead locker

One possible reason is that for long overwater flights you might need an additional raft in case one of the main ones can’t be deployed. I believe there is/used to be an FAA mandate similar to that for US carriers.

In Australia I believe flights can go up to 400 miles from shore without needing rafts? Some of the longer flights to the islands that use the QF aircraft might require full rafts and a contingency.

The one in the overhead locker might be a different capacity to the ceiling one. It appears they used to carry them that way, so possibly they’re still around for this purpose.

 

[Melburnian1]

It's like some people have never flown before... crew equipment has been stored in lockers well before I started flying.

Actually, my source travels internationally an enormous amount, sometimes in J and occasionally in F, though the latter isn't available on many airlines as Mattg has reminded travellers.

He's using his extremely large stash of QFF points as quickly as availability and plans permit, as he no longer chooses QFi for 'cash fares.' He's not Robinson Crusoe with that.

 

[milehighclub]

nd I doubt that the ceiling raft can actually fit in an overhead locker

It can because it’s not the same as the one in the ceiling. It only holds 25 pax.

 

[straitman]

Why have a life raft in overhead locker when there is a ceiling compartment for it

And I doubt that the ceiling raft can actually fit in an overhead locker

You answered your own question.

The life rafts, like everything else in life, come in different sizes and indeed some are stored in the overhead compartments.

 

[milehighclub]

The whole thing with the life raft is just ridiculous. Let's call out this post for what it is - another excuse for a certain poster to bash QF. The posters source wasn't even travelling in business, so why would he give two hoots whats stowed in a J locker. It had zero impact on his ability to stow his bags. Dozens of flights a week with that raft there and when it comes to emergency equipment, passengers are pretty understanding about it.

 

[RooFlyer]

The whole thing with the life raft is just ridiculous. Let's call out this post for what it is - another excuse for a certain poster to bash QF. The posters source wasn't even travelling in business, so why would he give two hoots whats stowed in a J locker. It had zero impact on his ability to stow his bags. Dozens of flights a week with that raft there and when it comes to emergency equipment, passengers are pretty understanding about it.

Well, it’s had a few benefits. Mainly we learned that life rafts are indeed carried in the lockers, contrary to the assertions of a couple of people here and my own prior thinking.