A B737-ng flight attendant opened the L1 door with the slide armed after being distracted by other c...

Narrative:

After 18 years of arming and disarming aircraft doors; I failed to do so upon arrival. I was looking through the port hole to ensure the agent was present and the jetway was close to the aircraft before I disarmed my L1 door. I was preoccupied with the F/D door opened; the captain walked out and I was anxious to know if we were changing aircraft for our return flight. He gave me the information then 'knock; knock' the agent was at the door. I proceeded to open L1 only to have the slide pack fall out of its casing onto the floor. The door was open 1/4 of the way. The poor agent jumped way back; and I dropped to my knees to hang on to the slide pack; thinking that the girt bar had slipped out and got caught. Then I looked down to realize the girt bar was still in its brackets! I commanded for the first class passengers to stand back; twice I had to tell them. Luckily; captain was standing there and he was able to assist me in securing the slide pack back into its casing by disarming it and gently pushing it back in. Maintenance showed up and was able to open our door and said it was ok to deplane. It all happened so fast tht even the first officer had no idea it happened; since deplaning was only held up a matter of minutes.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737-NG Flight Attendant opened the L1 door with the slide armed after being distracted by other crew communications. The slide did not deploy because the Captain assisted putting the slide pack back in the casing.

Narrative: After 18 years of arming and disarming aircraft doors; I failed to do so upon arrival. I was looking through the port hole to ensure the agent was present and the jetway was close to the aircraft before I disarmed my L1 door. I was preoccupied with the F/D door opened; the Captain walked out and I was anxious to know if we were changing aircraft for our return flight. He gave me the information then 'knock; knock' the agent was at the door. I proceeded to open L1 only to have the slide pack fall out of its casing onto the floor. The door was open 1/4 of the way. The poor agent jumped way back; and I dropped to my knees to hang on to the slide pack; thinking that the girt bar had slipped out and got caught. Then I looked down to realize the girt bar was still in its brackets! I commanded for the First Class passengers to stand back; twice I had to tell them. Luckily; Captain was standing there and he was able to assist me in securing the slide pack back into its casing by disarming it and gently pushing it back in. Maintenance showed up and was able to open our door and said it was OK to deplane. It all happened so fast tht even the First Officer had no idea it happened; since deplaning was only held up a matter of minutes.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	820571
Time
Date	200901
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Escape Slide
Person 1
Function	Flight Attendant (On Duty)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A B737-ng flight attendant opened the L1 door with the slide armed after being distracted by other crew communications. The slide did not deploy because the captain assisted putting the slide pack back in the casing.