Narrative:

I was reassigned. While in the crew room printing the release I had spoken with the first officer who was removed from this flight so that it could be assigned to myself and my IOE (initial operating experience) student. He informed me of the debacle that had followed this flight which was now five hours behind schedule. The main issue was that both flight attendants had never done IOE or a revenue flight on the Q400. When I reached the airplane they were both sitting in the front franticly reading through their books. I started to ask what was going on and I could tell right away that they were both under a lot of tension. I asked them if they felt that this flight could be conducted safely. They both looked at each other for a few seconds then one of them said they were safe but uncomfortable. I had already made my decision that this was a very unsafe situation. We should never have two flight attendants who were both brand new and on reserve to the company operating a flight for which they have never done IOE on. I realize that they were given IOE on another aircraft type and one observation ride on the Q400 but this does not make them competent to do their jobs! These flight attendants were ultimately split up and each given a senior flight attendant to work with. This situation ended badly as well. The flight attendant that was removed from my aircraft flew to a different destination where he was removed again for not being able to do his job. The flight attendant that was on my flight spent the entire ferry flight back being trained by another flight attendant who was on board. This was ultimately unfair to him as he was not getting paid for this. They were both on dead head pay. I would truthfully believe that in the last two years this airline has made a great improvement in its safety culture until now. The last three days spent in the terminal has shown me that we are defiantly back to the 'old' ways. As if this situation was not bad enough I would like you also know what happened as both I and my regular flight attendants took this issue up the chain of command. We stopped into a manager's office to explain the situation. I just listened as the flight attendants did the talking. The manager basically blamed both of my flight attendants for this issue. She chastised them both for causing this issue saying that they should have trained these newer flight attendants in their deficient areas. So what I do not understand is if she understands that they are not proficient enough to work the flight why is she expecting another flight attendant to train them while performing both of their jobs. Again; very unsafe! After listening to the finger point gripe session I finally stepped in and told her that every person should be trained to perform their job proficiently and safely in every position they operate. Cutting corners does put us back into an unsafe operation. Again; I got the 'it's not my fault' answers and this is how it was going to be done so get use to it. That answer was totally unsatisfactory from a person in a management roll. I told her if this was going to be our stance as a company then it was my job as a check airman to bring this to the FAA's attention. I do fully plan to bring this to the FAA's attention; however; I would like to give our own management a chance to fix this problem before it leaves our house.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Q400 Check Airman refused to fly with two new flight attendants not trained in that aircraft. One was replaced with a trained Flight Attendant who trained the new Flight Attendant on a deadhead. The pilot objected to the lack of safety.

Narrative: I was reassigned. While in the crew room printing the release I had spoken with the First Officer who was removed from this flight so that it could be assigned to myself and my IOE (Initial Operating Experience) student. He informed me of the debacle that had followed this flight which was now five hours behind schedule. The main issue was that both flight attendants had never done IOE or a revenue flight on the Q400. When I reached the airplane they were both sitting in the front franticly reading through their books. I started to ask what was going on and I could tell right away that they were both under a lot of tension. I asked them if they felt that this flight could be conducted safely. They both looked at each other for a few seconds then one of them said they were safe but uncomfortable. I had already made my decision that this was a VERY UNSAFE situation. We should never have two flight attendants who were both brand new and on reserve to the company operating a flight for which they have never done IOE on. I realize that they were given IOE on another aircraft type and one observation ride on the Q400 but this does not make them competent to do their jobs! These flight attendants were ultimately split up and each given a senior Flight Attendant to work with. This situation ended badly as well. The Flight Attendant that was removed from my aircraft flew to a different destination where he was removed again for not being able to do his job. The Flight Attendant that was on my flight spent the entire ferry flight back being trained by another Flight Attendant who was on board. This was ultimately unfair to him as he was not getting paid for this. They were both on dead head pay. I would truthfully believe that in the last two years this airline has made a great improvement in its safety culture until now. The last three days spent in the terminal has shown me that we are defiantly back to the 'old' ways. As if this situation was not bad enough I would like you also know what happened as both I and my regular flight attendants took this issue up the chain of command. We stopped into a Manager's office to explain the situation. I just listened as the flight attendants did the talking. The Manager basically blamed both of my flight attendants for this issue. She chastised them both for causing this issue saying that they should have trained these newer Flight Attendants in their deficient areas. So what I do not understand is if she understands that they are not proficient enough to work the flight why is she expecting another flight attendant to train them while performing both of their jobs. Again; Very UNSAFE! After listening to the finger point gripe session I finally stepped in and told her that every person should be trained to perform their job proficiently and safely in every position they operate. Cutting corners does put us back into an UNSAFE operation. Again; I got the 'it's not my fault' answers and this is how it was going to be done so get use to it. That answer was totally unsatisfactory from a person in a management roll. I told her if this was going to be our stance as a company then it was my job as a Check Airman to bring this to the FAA's attention. I do fully plan to bring this to the FAA's attention; however; I would like to give our own management a chance to fix this problem before it leaves our house.

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.