A flight attendant reports that while doing cabin safety checks in the lower level attendant rest ar...

Narrative:

I recently flew a B777-200 aircraft from ZZZZ to ZZZ1. One of the flight attendant's on this flight was doing safety checks in the lower lobe crew rest area and he tried to open the (cabin floor) escape hatch above him. He was unable to even get it to move (even) a little bit. He called for a mechanic and they discovered that the carpet over the hatch had been glued down and even they could not open it. They did manage to cut the carpet to make the hatch usable. This flight attendant brought this to my attention; so I told him that I would send a report concerning this matter. I don't know if this practice of gluing the carpet down over the hatch is common on all lower lobe aircraft; but perhaps it is something that should be checked out. That hatch could be the only means of escape from the lower crew rest area and the thought of it not opening when needed; is scary. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Flight Attendant reports that while doing cabin safety checks in the Lower Level Attendant rest area; he was unable to open the escape hatch on a B777. The carpet covering the cabin aisle floor hatch was larger than the size of the hatch and glued to the surrounding floorboards beyond the hatch.

Narrative: I recently flew a B777-200 aircraft from ZZZZ to ZZZ1. One of the flight attendant's on this flight was doing Safety Checks in the lower lobe crew rest area and he tried to open the (cabin floor) escape hatch above him. He was unable to even get it to move (even) a little bit. He called for a Mechanic and they discovered that the carpet over the hatch had been glued down and even they could not open it. They did manage to cut the carpet to make the hatch usable. This Flight Attendant brought this to my attention; so I told him that I would send a report concerning this matter. I don't know if this practice of gluing the carpet down over the hatch is common on all lower lobe aircraft; but perhaps it is something that should be checked out. That hatch could be the only means of escape from the lower crew rest area and the thought of it not opening when needed; is scary. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

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	868763
Time
Date	201001
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZZ.Airport
State Reference	FO
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B777-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Component
Aircraft Component	Interior Door
Person 1
Function	Flight Attendant (On Duty)
Qualification	Flight Attendant Current
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A flight attendant reports that while doing cabin safety checks in the lower level attendant rest area; he was unable to open the escape hatch on a B777. The carpet covering the cabin aisle floor hatch was larger than the size of the hatch and glued to the surrounding floorboards beyond the hatch.