So yesterday on flight 863 ORD-SFO the flight attendant asked the important qualifying questions of the passengers in an exit row. For around five minutes you could hear her saying, "do you speak English?" Then looking around puzzled. They did not speak English. The flight departure was delayed for at least 15 minutes while the attendants debated what to do. It seemed pretty obvious to most of us that it would be great to ask them to exchange seats with some other passengers who would be more able to respond in case of emergency.

But their solution was to find a woman who spoke their language to come and ask them the questions. That satisfied the attendants.

Do you think it's ok to have non-English speakers sitting in those rows? How would they know what to do?

I think the first thing to do is notify the FAA that this occurred. There is no way I would want someone who could not understand the language to be resposible for opening an emergency exit for me. If I'm not mistaken, this is a violation of the requirements for sitting in an exit row seat. If I was near this incident I would have told the flight attendant that it appeared to me that the exit row passengers could not speak english while asking the flight attendant's name.

No one is to sit in the exit row if they cannot speak English and understand instructions from a uniformed crew member,PERIOD!As a flight attendant, I am appalled. I would definitely write or call the airline to find out what their policy is.

This is really scary. I would definitely contact UA (this was UA 863, right, the 6:05 pm to SFO?) and the FAA.

It's not really scary....

<i>Passengers who do not speak <b>any</b> of the languages used by the crew on board (passengers in the exit row need to be able to understand safety instructions in the case of an emergency)</i>

http://airtravel.about.com/cs/inflight/a/exitrow_2.htm

Maybe cabo can clarify, but the post did not lead to the conclusion that a crew member spoke their language or that the woman who was found that could communicate with the pax was in fact a crew member; if so they didn't qualify.

Based on your explanation, the flight crew violated FAR 121.585, which is a Federal offense. The specific violations would be FAR 121.585(b)(3), 121.585(b)(6), 121.585(d)(6), and 121.585(e)(2).

Which airline was it? The only airline I know of that flies ORD-SFO with a flight number of 863 is United Airlines.

I would have pointed out the violation to the flight crew immediately. I have no desire to die in a plane crash because of reckless behavior on the part of airline employees. If you want to fly safely, you have to report this.

You should send a complaint in writing to the FAA, with all the specifics of the incident. Your safety depends on this.

The woman who translated was sitting in a window seat far from the exit door.

United - a huge, new wonderful 767 and the attendant was a delightful woman - but seemed absolutely stupefied by this incident. It doesn't seem so hard to handle to me.

I will write to UAL and FAA.

Thanks for your input.

I'm surprised other passengers within earshot of this didn't speak up.

If the flight crew itself, legally obligated to enforce the rules (which they are required to know), was too gutless to do so, do you really think that mere pax would be inclined to do it for them?

I asked UAL about this incident in writing, and they refused to comment, citing &quot;Federal Privacy Guidelines&quot; (sic). Federal laws do not prohibit releasing this type of information, so I interpret this as a smokescreen, and since UAL did not deny that the incident occurred, I interpret it as a tacit confirmation as well (an incident that never occurred would not raise privacy issues, would it?).

I suggest you write to the FAA directly. When the FAA questions an airline, it isn't satisfied by a cookbook answer from a subcontracted customer rep 7000 miles away from corporate headquarters. It sounds like something is amiss.