When the flight attendants were unable to arm the slide at door L2 of the ERJ170 the captain attempt...

Narrative:

Caterers were catering from the R2 door because they couldn't access L2 door. I checked all indicators and arming levers. All were in disarmed mode. After passengers boarded; compliance check complete and safety demo completed; flight attendant a called for arming of the doors. L2 arming lever would not come down to arming position. I checked all indicators and found they were clear. I called flight attendant a and she came back and tried to arm door unsuccessfully. I tried again using all my weight to engage arming lever with no results. Flight attendant a called captain who immediately came to the door and flight attendant a returned to the forward galley. Captain tried to arm L2 unsuccessfully.he checked all indicators and I rechecked with my flashlight. All indicators were in disarmed mode. The girtbar indicator was clear. Captain opened the door to re-close it and the slide deployed. The slide did not deploy correctly. It hung at an extreme angle toward the rear of the aircraft. If this slide had been the only slide available in an emergency the passengers would have fallen off the side half way down and there would have been many injuries. It was definitely a faulty slide.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: When the flight attendants were unable to arm the slide at door L2 of the ERJ170 the Captain attempted to reclose the door which resulted in the deployment of the slide.

Narrative: Caterers were catering from the R2 door because they couldn't access L2 door. I checked all indicators and arming levers. All were in disarmed mode. After passengers boarded; compliance check complete and safety demo completed; Flight Attendant A called for arming of the doors. L2 arming lever would not come down to arming position. I checked all indicators and found they were clear. I called Flight Attendant A and she came back and tried to arm door unsuccessfully. I tried again using all my weight to engage arming lever with no results. Flight Attendant A called Captain who immediately came to the door and Flight Attendant A returned to the forward galley. Captain tried to arm L2 unsuccessfully.He checked all indicators and I rechecked with my flashlight. All indicators were in disarmed mode. The girtbar indicator was clear. Captain opened the door to re-close it and the slide deployed. The slide did not deploy correctly. It hung at an extreme angle toward the rear of the aircraft. If this slide had been the only slide available in an emergency the passengers would have fallen off the side half way down and there would have been many injuries. It was definitely a faulty slide.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	920248
Time
Date	201011
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 170/175 ER&LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Escape Slide
Person 1
Function	Flight Attendant (On Duty)
Qualification	Flight Attendant Current
Person 2
Function	Flight Attendant (On Duty)
Qualification	Flight Attendant Current
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

When the flight attendants were unable to arm the slide at door L2 of the ERJ170 the captain attempted to reclose the door which resulted in the deployment of the slide.