After the pilot and dispatcher complete the flight briefing, they must also hold a crew briefing with other crew members, mainly the flight attendants. This meeting can be held at the company office, or possibly in the cabin; it seems to depend on the specific situation. The flight attendants report for duty 1.5 hours before the flight departure and hold a work preparation meeting covering passenger counts, division of duties during emergencies, and other topics.

The crew briefing begins with self-introductions. Since a major airline has hundreds of pilots and thousands of flight attendants, the probability of so many people being assigned to the same flight is extremely low. Therefore, the chance of meeting again simultaneously after completing this flight is close to zero. Since everyone is unlikely to know each other, they need to introduce themselves first.

Next, the Captain or First Officer will explain the aircraft status, the flight route, altitude, time, weather at each airport, alternate airports, and the possibility of airflow and turbulence. Also, safety equipment such as fire extinguishers and countermeasures for emergency situations are important agenda items. For example, in the event of an emergency like an onboard fire, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regulations state that all occupants must be evacuated from any aircraft within 90 seconds for a land evacuation (the 90-second rule).

Therefore, each exit on the aircraft is equipped with an emergency escape slide. In an emergency, opening the door causes the slide to deploy and automatically inflate to the ground within 10 seconds for evacuation. Once passengers have boarded, flight attendants set each door to the “Armed” mode for the escape slide. In this mode, opening the door will automatically release the emergency slide. (By the way, I heard that a passenger in China actually opened the door out of curiosity, resulting in the slide being deployed and the flight being delayed for several hours. It is truly unbelievable… It seems that some aviation knowledge really needs to be popularized.) Additionally, when flight attendants enter the cockpit to provide food and drinks to the pilots, the pilots need to use the unlock button to open the auto-locked door. The communication protocol for this is also explained during the briefing. Flight attendants take notes on all the above information to announce to passengers during the in-flight broadcast.

This briefing lasts for about ten minutes. After it ends, the entire crew heads to the boarding gate together. Also, for international flights where crew members have a lot of luggage, it seems they also need to go to the check-in counter to check their bags, complete customs exit procedures, and then proceed to the boarding gate.

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