Narrative:

Upon reaching the aircraft; I (flight attendant-B) began to preflight my safety equipment in the aft of the cabin. I immediately noticed a problem with the top one of the walk around O2 bottles behind row 34 on aircraft left. The bottle was bracketed in a position where the gauge was pointed downward so I could not read it. I put my phone up there to see if I could get a picture of the gauge to see if it was full; but the phone was positioned too close to the gauge due to the proximity of the seatback. I promptly notified the ca; who called maintenance. The maintenance person came up and made some snarky comments to me about them using mirrors. I explained that I did not have a mirror; and my phone couldn't get a picture. Maintenance person got on his knees and then laid down on floor (right by lav); stuck his head in between seatback and lav wall and told me it was okay. I asked him if he could turn the bottle and resecure it in the bracket so that we wouldn't have to call maintenance again the next time a crewmember needed to preflight. He adamantly told me that he was not required to position the gauge so that we could read it. He said if I wanted to see it for myself; then I should get down on floor like he did and read gauge. In my 30 years in this industry; I have had many instances where the bottle needed to be repositioned by maintenance so that we can fulfill our safety obligation to preflight it. I have even had an maintenance supervisor tell me that sometimes maintenance gets in a hurry on overnight checks and accidentally points the gauges down; but that we can report it and they will reposition it for us since it requires laying down on floor and reaching above your head to reposition. I told the captain what was going on; and he said he would call maintenance back because if I couldn't see the gauge; then I didn't actually finish my preflight. I went back to my duties; the flight was boarded; and the boarding door closed. The flight attendant-1/a advised me by interphone that the captain told her maintenance refused to come back out and turned the bottle. Therefore; I; myself; did not actually preflight the gauge although maintenance told me it was showing full.1. It should be a requirement for the walk around oxygen bottles to be positioned in the brackets so that the gauge is oriented to where the flight attendants can read them upon leaning over the seat and looking.2. These bottles are nearly impossible to secure back in brackets (whether for turning them to aim gauges upward or to secure for landing after using one). It requires lying on the dirty floor with your hands above your head and trying to secure by feel only. Mx personnel have a hard time doing it and it takes strength and a few minutes even though they are used to it. I've never seen a flight attendant be successful at getting it resecured. If they were mounted in an overhead bin or somewhere else where they were easier to access; both of these problems would be resolved.3. There should be a no tolerance rule for a maintenance person to refuse to do something which interferes with a crewmember being able to finish performing the mandatory preflight safety checks.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A321 Flight Attendant reported being unable to read the gauge on a walk-around O2 bottle due to the position it was oriented.

Narrative: Upon reaching the aircraft; I (FA-B) began to preflight my safety equipment in the aft of the cabin. I immediately noticed a problem with the top one of the Walk around O2 bottles behind row 34 on aircraft left. The bottle was bracketed in a position where the gauge was pointed downward so I could not read it. I put my phone up there to see if I could get a picture of the gauge to see if it was full; but the phone was positioned too close to the gauge due to the proximity of the seatback. I promptly notified the CA; who called maintenance. The maintenance person came up and made some snarky comments to me about them using mirrors. I explained that I did not have a mirror; and my phone couldn't get a picture. Maintenance person got on his knees and then laid down on floor (right by lav); stuck his head in between seatback and lav wall and told me it was okay. I asked him if he could turn the bottle and resecure it in the bracket so that we wouldn't have to call maintenance again the next time a crewmember needed to preflight. He adamantly told me that he was not required to position the gauge so that we could read it. He said if I wanted to see it for myself; then I should get down on floor like he did and read gauge. In my 30 years in this industry; I have had many instances where the bottle needed to be repositioned by maintenance so that we can fulfill our safety obligation to preflight it. I have even had an maintenance supervisor tell me that sometimes maintenance gets in a hurry on overnight checks and accidentally points the gauges down; but that we can report it and they will reposition it for us since it requires laying down on floor and reaching above your head to reposition. I told the captain what was going on; and he said he would call maintenance back because if I couldn't see the gauge; then I didn't actually finish my preflight. I went back to my duties; the flight was boarded; and the boarding door closed. The FA-1/A advised me by interphone that the captain told her maintenance refused to come back out and turned the bottle. Therefore; I; myself; did not actually preflight the gauge although maintenance told me it was showing full.1. It should be a requirement for the walk around oxygen bottles to be positioned in the brackets so that the gauge is oriented to where the flight attendants can read them upon leaning over the seat and looking.2. These bottles are nearly impossible to secure back in brackets (whether for turning them to aim gauges upward or to secure for landing after using one). It requires lying on the dirty floor with your hands above your head and trying to secure by feel only. MX personnel have a hard time doing it and it takes strength and a few minutes even though they are used to it. I've never seen a flight attendant be successful at getting it resecured. If they were mounted in an overhead bin or somewhere else where they were easier to access; both of these problems would be resolved.3. There should be a no tolerance rule for a maintenance person to refuse to do something which interferes with a crewmember being able to finish performing the mandatory preflight safety checks.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.