Carriers are legally responsible for ensuring that all unnecessary belongings of passengers are removed to a safe place before boarding. Tray tables are naturally one of them, as they can create obstacles in the event of an emergency evacuation. Moreover, with an open table, it is not always possible to fasten your seat belt.
At the end of the two-hour flight from Singapore, passengers heard the captain’s usual message: “In a few minutes, our plane will begin to descend. We ask passengers to close the folding tables, open the curtains of the portholes & hellip; ". The captain ordered the flight attendants to prepare the cabin for boarding, and at this time, some passengers on the stands still had trays of food.
Even pressing the button to call the flight attendant had no effect — no one answered the call. Only after landing in Bangkok did the flight attendants see that the trays of food were still in the cabin and took them away.
Later, a Thai Airways representative will say that there could be several reasons why the trays were not collected before landing. At the same time, he assured that the airline “will not rest on the investigation of this incident.” “Flight attendants have a checklist to ensure order in the cabin before takeoff and landing and must work in accordance with international aviation safety standards.”
One possible explanation was the forecast of severe turbulence, in which flight attendants are instructed to take their regular seats and buckle up. Therefore, de they could not go into the salon and make sure that all the tables with trays were removed.