Ask the Captain: What happens during 'cross check?'

Question: What does it mean when flight attendants do a cross check?

-- Submitted by reader James Hupp, N.C.

Answer: They are verifying that the doors are armed, i.e. the slides are ready to automatically deploy if the door is opened, when away from the gate or disarmed (the door can be opened without the slide deploying) when approaching the gate. Not only do the flight attendants arm and disarm the door, they are responsible for checking that their colleagues have armed or disarmed their doors too.

Q: On my last flight, I was told to open the shutter of the window next to my seat, for takeoff and landing. Are there safety issues in having them closed, or is it just a routine process flight attendants have to check? Also during a night landing, the lights were switched off in the entire cabin. Are there connections between the two? Thanks for your answers, I really enjoy reading your explanations.

-- Ryan, Zurich, Switzerland

A: Having the window shade open helps flight attendants assess conditions outside the airplane if an evacuation is necessary. If there were a fire outside, as an example, flight attendants would not open exits near the fire. Requirements for open shades are not consistent and vary from country to country. Yes, there a connection between the lighting state and the shade position, both are done to help assess conditions outside the airplane.

Q: When flight attendants give the briefing at the beginning of a flight, why don't they give specific seat locations where the exits are located for the plane? For example, the over-wing exits are located in row 18.

-- Jean Spahr, Red Bud, Ill.

A: Rows are often not numbered sequentially, so on many airplanes there are "missing" rows. As an example, a 757 I was on recently had 6 rows in first class but the first row of coach was row 10. Providing row numbers could cause confusion, consequently many airlines do not mention a number during the briefing.

Q: The lengthy speech re "if we should lose pressurization," should be simplified.

HJ Wnuk, Fallon, Nev.

A: The FAA requires specific verbiage; the flight attendants are following the requirements. Hopefully in the future it will be simplified.

John Cox is a retired airline captain with US Airways and runs his own aviation safety consulting company, Safety Operating Systems.