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An A320's faulty evacuation alarm sounded continuously for the last 20 minutes of flight.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 867073 |
| Time | |
| Date | 200912 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.ARTCC |
| State Reference | US |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | A320 |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Descent |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | Cockpit/Cabin Communication |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Flight Attendant (On Duty) |
| Qualification | Flight Attendant Current |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical |
Narrative:
Approximately 20 minutes prior to our landing the cabin control panel above my jump seat at 1L went haywire. Every alarm including the evacuate/evacuation alarm was flashing and beeping. I waited a couple minutes for communication from the cockpit knowing how busy they were and that they were already working during extreme noise distraction. During that time the flight attendants were calming and reassuring passengers and checking lavatories for fire and smoke and there was none. The flight attendant interphones were inoperative. When the cockpit did call the sound was too intermittent for communication. At that point flight attendant Y came to the forward galley and we decided we had to access the cockpit to communicate with the pilots. We quickly established that it was only a malfunction and that there was not any fire/terrorist threat and that neither the flight crew or cockpit had initiated the evacuate/evacuation alarm. Then the captain made an announcement over the PA (his worked!) to the passengers that we had a faulty control panel that everything was normal otherwise that we would have a normal landing and to remain seated for a normal arrival at the gate. Passengers were calm and reassured; so we prepared for landing normally. The alarms continued to malfunction until we reached the gate and the mechanic silenced the alarms.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: An A320's faulty evacuation alarm sounded continuously for the last 20 minutes of flight.
Narrative: Approximately 20 minutes prior to our landing the cabin control panel above my jump seat at 1L went haywire. Every alarm including the EVAC alarm was flashing and beeping. I waited a couple minutes for communication from the cockpit knowing how busy they were and that they were already working during extreme noise distraction. During that time the flight attendants were calming and reassuring passengers and checking lavatories for fire and smoke and there was none. The flight attendant interphones were inoperative. When the cockpit did call the sound was too intermittent for communication. At that point Flight Attendant Y came to the forward galley and we decided we had to access the cockpit to communicate with the pilots. We quickly established that it was only a malfunction and that there was not any fire/terrorist threat and that neither the flight crew or cockpit had initiated the EVAC alarm. Then the Captain made an announcement over the PA (his worked!) to the passengers that we had a faulty control panel that everything was normal otherwise that we would have a normal landing and to remain seated for a normal arrival at the gate. Passengers were calm and reassured; so we prepared for landing normally. The alarms continued to malfunction until we reached the gate and the Mechanic silenced the alarms.
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.