The Day After Tomorrow was fraught with inaccuracies, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was another one. Early on, when the plane goes through turbulence, the flight attendants scramble to their jump seats, with no time to secure the beverage cart. Cart starts rolling back down the aisle, and one FA has to leap up from the jump seat to avoid being pulverized when the cart smashes into the seat with what would have been deadly accuracy.
“C’mon, man,” I said at the time. “Isn’t that something that would have been taken into account when the plane was built?” So was that accurate, or are jump seats sensibly placed so that they’re not right at the end of the aisle?
No they aren’t. Most jump seats are typically placed in two areas. One is at the front of the plane facing towards the rear of the cabin away from the ailes. The other is at the rear of the plane somewhere near the rear bathrooms and the galley. They are not typically aligned with the regular seats at all.
On most planes they are not in the aisles, but there are exceptions. On a Canadair regional jet The FA seat pulls out and covers the front of the aisle. Check the link, the seat pulls from across the aisle from the galley and slides toward the galley. The FA faces rearward, and has an unobstructed view of the aisle of the aircraft.
I am sure that there are some other bug smashers that have similar arrangements.
IANA air steward, but I think the bullshit element in the scenario that was suggested was that the cabin crew would go to their seats while leaving a trolley rolling free. That’s simply not what they do. They secure things, and when that’s done they go to their seats.
In general, jumpseats are stuffed whereever they’ll fit that won’t take up space that could otherwise hold a paying customer’s seat. There are design regs that cover proximity to exits and such, but a key determinant is minimal adverse impact on revenue generation.
And yes, on many aircraft types, one or more jumpseats are aligned with the aisle. It’s particularly common at the aft end of a single-aisle aircraft.
As to stowing carts, we have two different turbulence drills at my carrier. One is based on having a couple minutes’ notice, where they’re instructed to get carts stowed as fast as possible and take their jumpseats. All other paraphernalia in the cabin is left whereever it is. Watch out for flying food trays and laptops.
The other drill is for last-ditch suprises, wherein we instruct them to take a seat, any seat, RIGHT NOW. They’ll strap into the closest open passenger seat, or if there’s not one available within a couple of rows, dive to the floor & lock arms & legs around the seat stanchions. At that point, we’re trying to prevent people bouncing off the ceiling, and although flying carts are bad, they tend to land back in the aisle or on seat backs, so if the passengers do the instinctive thing and duck, they’re unlikely to be severely smashed by one. All in all, not an ideal situation by any stretch. If we get away with only a few broken limbs we’ll call that event a “pass”.
A motto we live by: A superior pilot is one who uses his superior judgement to avoid siituations requiring his superior skill.
But when your back’s against the wall, you still need another 3 backup plans. Stews on the floor & potentially flying carts is one such extreme fallback plan.
Forgive my cynism but The Day After Tomorrow was written & directed by the biggest, most incompetant hack filmaker today, namely Roland Emmerich, maker of such accurate and sensible films as Independence Day and Godzilla.
I thought the carts’ wheels were locked at virtually all times anyways. Even if a flight attendant was rolling a cart and only had a second to fasten down, they could probably lock the wheels.
Last summer, under very strange circumstances, I was permitted to sit in a jump seat. There were two seats in an alcove at the rear end of the aisle. I shared this area with a very attractive flight attendant from the Netherlands. What pleasant memories that flight supplied. My wife was up front with two handsome pilots. At the end of the flight they gave us two bags, which we later learned were filled with all types of liquor.
When flight conditions get rough flight attendants are instructed to lock the wheels on the cart and sit down immediately.