I travelled from Zurich to Edinburgh on Swiss Air/Helvetic earlier this week I was really disturbed to see how sloppy their in-cabin safety checks were. The attendant missed several rows for pre-landing check. The guy in the exit aisle seat next to me was left sleeping with wireless headphones on and his belt not fastened. No checks were done to see if there were any bags on the floor. I had to waken him to get him to put his seatbelt on. Didn't fancy the thought of a projectile body flying about the cabin should something go wrong. When we landed, the pilot was braking hard, then stamped on the brakes, full braking for a moment. Everyone in the cabin jolted forward. my wife and I almost hit the seat in front. Not sure where the guy next to me would have ended up if his belt hadn't been fastened. Think I'll avoid them in future.
Swiss Air/Helvetic
- Thread starter Sandyn
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For a couple of years I did some work on customer survey / satisfaction in a b2b company.
I realised that narrative feedback like this isn't all that plentiful in a lot of companies. The people with the power to change systems don't see enough of it. Whether they can or want to do anything about is is another issue, but this felt bad enough for you to warn us away from the airline so perhaps spend a half hour tracking down the email address of their health and safety director and just email them the same.
ESH managers, if any good at all, are trained to listen to concerns from anyone.
A story has more impact than dozens of 1 star ratings.
Do a root cause analysis on this and find a whole mix of issues around staff training, management, resourcing, who knows.
Or maybe the pilot and stewardess just broke up and they were both in a foul temper
I realised that narrative feedback like this isn't all that plentiful in a lot of companies. The people with the power to change systems don't see enough of it. Whether they can or want to do anything about is is another issue, but this felt bad enough for you to warn us away from the airline so perhaps spend a half hour tracking down the email address of their health and safety director and just email them the same.
ESH managers, if any good at all, are trained to listen to concerns from anyone.
A story has more impact than dozens of 1 star ratings.
Do a root cause analysis on this and find a whole mix of issues around staff training, management, resourcing, who knows.
Or maybe the pilot and stewardess just broke up and they were both in a foul temper
It was just an observation. If you try to contact the company, you have to give details, such as name. It wouldn't take them long to find the staff on the plane and I'm sure someone would get into trouble. I wouldn't want that. We can all have a bad days. I've spent years doing failure analysis. I'm retired now. someone else's problem now 
I don't understand why you complain here about an apparent lapse in airline safety and don't want to get involved. What if "someone else's problem" is discovered during an accident investigation that could have been prevented by corrective actions? You observed issues on one flight. What if those issues were part of a series of events by the same crew over multiple flights and you just happened to be fortunate to recognize them...but did nothing?
From my own experience, one of my bosses was quite clear that no one brings a problem to him without a solution to fix it. The result was very little was reported until it was too late. Equipment and mission losses were common because of silly things that could have been fixed if they had been identified earlier. He never considered that some people might not have any idea how to fix what they think is a problem. Over time, dinosaurs like him left the workforce and I eventually became the boss.
My guidance to the staff was in line with my organizations newest policy of "see something, say something". I don't expect everyone to be an expert in everything, but I have learned that most intelligent people are good at realizing when something does not appear correct and they are more likely to report it when they know they won't be on the hook to fix it if the problem is real. If anyone reporting an apparent problem had a proposed solution, that would be great, but it was not required. The report would be sent to the appropriate staff for action and resolution, with feedback to the person reporting the issue.
From my own experience, one of my bosses was quite clear that no one brings a problem to him without a solution to fix it. The result was very little was reported until it was too late. Equipment and mission losses were common because of silly things that could have been fixed if they had been identified earlier. He never considered that some people might not have any idea how to fix what they think is a problem. Over time, dinosaurs like him left the workforce and I eventually became the boss.
My guidance to the staff was in line with my organizations newest policy of "see something, say something". I don't expect everyone to be an expert in everything, but I have learned that most intelligent people are good at realizing when something does not appear correct and they are more likely to report it when they know they won't be on the hook to fix it if the problem is real. If anyone reporting an apparent problem had a proposed solution, that would be great, but it was not required. The report would be sent to the appropriate staff for action and resolution, with feedback to the person reporting the issue.
Management
Tobias Pogorevc, Chief Executive OfficerSimon Schatzmann, Chief Operation Officer
Board of Directors
Leonardo De Luca, Chairman of the Board of DirectorsStaff
Total: 400 (Flight Crew, Cabin Crew, Maintenance, Backoffice), 01/02/2022https://www.key.aero/article/helvetic-airways-other-swiss-airline
It's a little outfit, but aspirational.
I hear what you are saying. It was just an observation, but I'm still not complaining. This could have been a one off. The probability of it happening again low. If I complain the cabin staff could get into trouble.....probability high. We all deserve a chance. Who knows what was going on in their life.
I worked in a place that was classed as being "so safe" that it was dangerous. Once you get a culture of believing everything is safe and under control people become complacent and simple things get overlooked that should have been brought to someones attention.
If a company has a good safety culture then there should be no action taken against the people involved, what it should do is to instigate an investigation that gets to the bottom of the problem so as it can be resolved, this might be training or changes to working practices but a safe working enviroment has to be open and without fear of comeback when things are reported.
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