I'm not sure how this one is an airline process issue. Boeing recommended checking pilot seats, pointing to instructions on disassembling the seat motors.
Towards the end of the article it mentions that motor switches should be securely covered and not used during flight. Both sound like potential design flaws - if the motors should never be used during flight they should have covers that can't be left open and/or the motors should be disabled while in the air.
> if the motors should never be used during flight
The article is wrong: there are absolutely reasons to adjust seats during flight. They're just relatively infrequent. A secure switch cover is an appropriate mitigation for the risks of inadvertent seat movement.
There's the switches used to adjust the seat when you're in it, and then there's these switches used to adjust the seat when you're not. E.g. to get into the seat during a crew change in flight, or FAs are trained to use these switches to render aid to an incapacitated crew member.
There was an issue where the switches could be out of position and the cover would be ineffective (this is part of that service bulletin).
It's unclear whether the FA deliberately hit the switch (there are rumors that FAs used the switch to serve food to pilots), whether the cover was left open, or whether the cover was ineffective.
Thanks for the clarification here! I don't know enough about the flight operations here so I just kept it with the article's explanation and a big if this is accurate.
