Door arming
Setting a cabin door so the escape slide deploys automatically when it is opened — done before push-back, undone after arrival.
Definition
Door arming connects the escape slide to the aircraft floor — mechanically via the girt bar on older types, or by selecting a lever to "armed" or "automatic" on Airbus and modern Boeings — so that opening the door from inside fires the slide. Doors are armed after the doors close and before push-back on the purser's command, and disarmed after landing before the doors are opened. Airbus phrasing is "doors to automatic", Boeing "arm doors".
What it means for you
Arming and disarming is the one action in the job where a lapse is both dangerous and expensive: opening an armed door on the ground fires a slide into the jet bridge, can injure someone below and costs the airline tens of thousands to repack. That is why every arming is cross-checked by a colleague and confirmed to the purser, and why an inadvertent slide deployment is a formal incident.
In practice
On an easyJet A320 the purser's PA is "cabin crew, doors to automatic and cross-check"; each crew member moves the lever, checks the opposite door's indicator, and the purser reports to the flight deck before the tug pushes.
Related terms
4 terms- Cross-checkSafety & trainingA colleague verifying that the door opposite yours is armed or disarmed as commanded — the double-check that prevents slide deployments.
- Push-backFlight operationsThe moment a tug pushes the aircraft off the stand — doors closed and armed, cabin secure, and the clock on block time starts.
- Emergency exitSafety & trainingAny door or hatch certified for evacuation — the doors crew operate and the overwing exits passengers are briefed to open.
- EvacuationSafety & trainingGetting everyone off the aircraft through the exits within 90 seconds, on the captain's command or the crew's own assessment.