A Day in the Life of a Senior Crew Member

The purpose of this report is to be presented to an induction class at the united airlines where I was asked to brief the new members on the role and responsibilities of the senior crew member to increase their knowledge on such. This report is in four paragraph format where it will include the introduction, research findings, discussion and the conclusion on the role of the senior cabin crew member, the responsibilities of the senior cabin crew member during the stages of a flight, the reporting procedures for ensuring Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) compliance and revision of the importance of the role and responsibilities of the senior cabin crew member throughout the stages of a flight will be done, but before we move on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) compliance is defined by Caa.co.uk. (2017) as the rules and regulations set by CAA that all aviation sector governs under the CAA must follow, if there is noncompliance then there will be consequences.

Research findings:

P4: the role of the senior cabin crew member.

• Be a leader.
• Manage the other flight attendant on the flight, ensuring rule and regulation are being followed by both crew members and passengers.
• Serve and prepare food and beverages.
• Assist passengers whenever they need help.
• Complete all paper works before and after each flight.

P5: The responsibilities of the senior cabin crew member during the stages of a flight.

Responsibility during pre-departure:

• Pre-flight briefing.
• Communicate with flight and cabin crew members.
• Make passenger announcements.
• Complete documentation.
• Make equipment checks.
• Monitor team members and ensure all pre-departure duties are carried out.
• Do a cabin secure check.

(Essence Learning 2017).

Responsibilities during the flight:

• Plan and assist in delivering service to passengers.
• Provide solutions to the problem and make decisions.
• Monitor and manage crew members.

(Prospects.ac.uk, 2017).

Responsibilities prior to landing:

• Make passenger announcements
• Collect and complete all documentation
• Restrain all moving object like carts and secure sealing of bars, money etc.
• Do the final cabin checks.

(Prospects.ac.uk, 2017).

Responsibilities after landing:

• Handover reports
• Disarming and open the doors
• Communicate and work alongside flight ad cabin crew members and ground staff.
• Do a post flight breifing

(Prospects.ac.uk, 2017).

P6 The reporting procedures for ensuring Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) compliance

• Defective equipment
• Safety incidents
• Medical and security incidents on board

Discussion

P4: the role of the senior cabin crew member.

On the flight there different positions, you have the first pilot who is the captain, then the co-pilot, they are responsible for everyone on the aircraft, then you have the senior cabin crew member (SCCM) who is responsible for the cabin crew members and not only that but the SCCM is the leader of the cabin crew he is the first person to be called if there is any emergency on the flight and the first one to administer CPR in extreme cases . Not because the SCCM is the leader he is there to assist in preparing and serving food and beverages and all so assist passengers like carrying their luggage putting it in the overhead compartment etc.one another important role of the SCCM is to complete paper works before and after the flight, he is also responsible for a conducting a pre-flight briefing.

P5: The responsibilities of the senior cabin crew member during the stages of a flight.

The responsibilities of an SCCM depends on how big the crew is and whether it’s a long or short haul flight and the responsibilities change over different stages of the flight, before the plane takes off (pre-departure ) there is a lot of things to be done in a short amount of time so the SCCM responsibilities is to ensure that the duties assigned to the cabin crew are done. A pre-briefing meeting is kept by the SCCM to outline any change in flight information and safety procedures, a;so stating the nature of the flight and any other valuable information to the cabin crew members,SCCM is also responsible for the passenger announces where safety procedure are carried out and need to know information is passed on to the passengers.it is very important that the SCCM keep in communication with the flight crew to be well rounded on what is going on. A cabin check and equipment check is done to ensure that all equipment are working.(Essence Learning 2017).During the flight the SCCM responsibilities are to ensure that the crew members and passengers are safe, monitoring and managing the crew members with on point decision and problem-solving skills ,the SCCM is all so responsibility for providing services to the passengers like answering any question they may have and also serve and prepare food and beverage, the sharing of duties to the cabin crew members are also a part of the SCCM’s job description (Prospects.ac.uk, 2017). Prior to landing the SCCM responsibilities differs where he or she responsibility is to ensure that nothing harmful in the passageway, the securing of carts and the serving of hot beverage or serving is paused until the plane passes that stage, documents are also to be completed and handover at the end of the flight.prior to landing the SCCM will make passenger announcements (pas) so inform the passengers of the procedures and the last set of safety checks will be done (Prospects.ac.uk, 2017). After landing the SCCM disarm and open the doors, bid the passengers farewell.communication with teamwork is of key importance in getting the work done effectively so the SCCM liaise with cabin crew members, ground staff, and the flight crew to ensure that there is clear understanding if there is any emergent situation or just the caring out of daily procedures.at the end of a flight, a post-briefing is done by the SCCM to go through what happen during the flight and if there is any improvement needed to be done.(Prospects.ac.uk, 2017).

For P6: Outline the reporting procedures for ensuring Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) compliance.

Safety incidents

CAP 382 The Mandatory Occurrence Reporting Scheme (MORS)

• Mandatory Occurrence Reporting (MOR) Forms outlining the situation must be sent via email or fax to the director of CAA in your region.
• A copy of this report must be given to the employer for flight safety reasons.
• Reports must be sent out within 96 hours of the event.
• If the situation is deemed hazardous then the CAA requires the reported to send another email or fax to state this information, the same thing is to require if the situation is not hazardous.(Anon, 2017)

(See figure 1 in appendix)

Defective equipment

• The manufacturer or a suitable authority should be advised of the situation.
• The organization to which the occurrence report was made or made aware by the person who made the report should notify the manufacturer(s) or the regulatory agencies.
• Anon ,2017 stated that “when any part or equipment involved in an occurrence is being dispatched to another area or organisation for investigation or repair, the item(s) should be clearly identified as the subject of an occurrence report to the GCAA, by appropriate annotation of the “tag” and all accompanying paperwork”.

(Anon,2017)

Medical and security incidents on board

In-flight accident report

• In the event of an in-flight accident, The Accident and Incident Investigations Department (AIID) should be notified immediately via call or email, contacts are available on the CAA website.
• Then the commander or the operator of the aircraft must report to the CAA.

(Caa.co.za. 2017).

(see figure 1 in appendix)

M1 importance of the role and responsibilities of the senior cabin crew member throughout the stages of a flight

The major role and responsibility that the senior cabin crew member plays are to ensure the safety of the passengers and the staff, by doing this the SCCM have to uphold with the compliance of the regulations set by the CAA and other regulatory bodies by securing and doing periodic checks of the cabin and equipment. The SCCM is the leader if the cabin crew so he/she is responsible for ensuring that the duties are shared equality and being carried out by each assigned member ,the SCCM carries our a preflight briefing and post-flight briefing to ensure information is being passed on to the crew members and then to the passengers, doing this guarantees teamwork and flowing communication to limit confusion and panicking in case of an incident, the SCCM also aids in guest services like serving food and beverages and preparing crew member food this aids in teamwork and shows that no matter the rank you still have to be a team player.

D1: Discuss the consequences of poor coordination, including non-compliance with the company and regulatory policies and procedures.

• May cause injuries(Anon.2017)
• May lead to death (Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, P.C. 2017).
• the lawsuit (Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, P.C. 2017).
• Loss of customers and ruin reputation. (Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, P.C. 2017).
• Employees may lose their job. (Smallbusiness.chron.com,2017)
• The decrease of productivity. (Smallbusiness.chron.com,2017)
• Cause delay. (Smallbusiness.chron.com,2017)
• Duplication of duties (Smallbusiness.chron.com,2017)

Discussion

For D1: Discuss the consequences of poor coordination, including non-compliance with company and regulatory policies and procedures

The aviation industry focus is safety, so procedures and policies are set in place to ensure the safety of passengers, crew members, and the aircraft, non-compliance of these procedures may cause injuries, lawsuits, loss of a job or even death. For example non-compliance of hot Liquids Service Procedures where it states that flight attendants must discontinue service of hot beverage in turbulence and hot liquids must have lids that secure closely, will results in the injury of passenger or crew member (Anon, 2017).Aircraft maintenance is very important and skipping a step or just not upholding the maintenance of the aircraft may lead to death , this is call aircraft maintenance negligence, for example in January 8, 2013 a small 19 passenger aircraft plunged to the ground killing all passenger on the flight including first officer and the pilot, due to the fact the maintenance of the elevator control system and center of gravity imbalance, the pilot was unable to bring nose of the plane back down, with the plane pointed upwards air was unable to flow over the wings. Airlines who fail to uphold the safety regulation and the coordination of policies and procedures may face with a heavy lawsuit which will in return ruin the reputation of that business leading to loss of customers and is incarcerated if found guilty (Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, P.C. 2017). The consequences of poor coordination will result in the decrease in production, meaning procedures will not go as smooth as they should because there is delay no one wants to wait especially when they were promised fast and reliable service, the customer retention part of the business will suffer because of this. The lack of coordination ay cause duplication of duties and allowing other persons not to have a duty because of poor coordination. This will cause double effort and max time to correct the poor coordination. (Smallbusiness.chron.com,2017)