B757 flight attendant discovers an empty passenger oxygen bottle during preflight and reports it. Ma...

Narrative:

While doing my safety checks I noticed that the oxygen bottle at row 9 was empty. I called zone to inform them that I needed a new bottle and notified the purser since the pilots were not there yet. After a few minutes a mechanic came on and asked me if the bottle was low and I told him that it was empty. His answer was 'I'm going to defer this because we are in the middle of a shift change and I cannot take care of this right now and you have other bottles'. My question is even if it's a deferrable item why could a simple bottle not be replaced. What if it had been something else? Are the mechanics [so] understaffed that they are not able to perform their duties at a maintenance base? We left with the bottle empty and I asked the captain if he wrote it up for the next crew and he was not even aware that the O2 bottle was written up. I'm writing this report in case it was not reported and the next crew found an empty bottle and automatically assumed that the previous crew had not done their safety checks properly.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B757 Flight Attendant discovers an empty passenger oxygen bottle during preflight and reports it. Maintenance elects to defer it but the Captain is not informed; indicating that other required paper work was not initiated.

Narrative: While doing my safety checks I noticed that the oxygen bottle at row 9 was empty. I called zone to inform them that I needed a new bottle and notified the Purser since the pilots were not there yet. After a few minutes a Mechanic came on and asked me if the bottle was low and I told him that it was empty. His answer was 'I'm going to defer this because we are in the middle of a shift change and I cannot take care of this right now and you have other bottles'. My question is even if it's a deferrable item why could a simple bottle not be replaced. What if it had been something else? Are the mechanics [so] understaffed that they are not able to perform their duties at a maintenance base? We left with the bottle empty and I asked the Captain if he wrote it up for the next crew and he was not even aware that the O2 bottle was written up. I'm writing this report in case it was not reported and the next crew found an empty bottle and automatically assumed that the previous crew had not done their safety checks properly.

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	915308
Time
Date	201010
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B757-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Component
Aircraft Component	Oxygen System/Portable
Person 1
Function	Flight Attendant (On Duty)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown

B757 flight attendant discovers an empty passenger oxygen bottle during preflight and reports it. Maintenance elects to defer it but the captain is not informed; indicating that other required paper work was not initiated.