More than 200 passengers and crew used the emergency exits and slides to evacuate a Delta Boeing 757 that aborted a takeoff at Atlanta on Friday morning. An engine caught fire while the plane was on the roll on an uncharacteristically snowy runway and the pilots hit the brakes. The aircraft had reached about 90 knots. Four people were treated for minor injuries. There were 201 passengers and seven crew members.
What ‘minor injuries’? It appears the plane is safely stopped on the tarmac. Except for some extra excitement likely no more traumatic than a normal landing. Due to the snow the deceleration forces were likely less than usual.
‘Something went wrong with a Boeing. How can I profit off this?’
Evacuation slides are intended to get passengers off the airplane quickly, so once inflated, they’re both very steep and surprisingly slick, so you’re moving pretty fast by the bottom, and it’s easy for someone to injure themselves, especially if they’re older and/or have mobility issues.
Long ago, at my last ATC facility, SWA had an engine bird strike while taking off. Was just past V1 but made a hasty decision to abort anyhow. Ran off the end of the runway, down a slight hill, came to a stop very near the edge of a very steep drop, sitting at an odd angle. Airstairs could reach it. Only damage was burning tires which the fire dept extinguished immediately. Only way to exit was the slides. Slides were steep because of the way the airplane came to rest. On male passenger, in his haste, caught his foot at the top of the slide, went down forward, and ended up breaking his leg. SWA said because of that and the definition of accident vs incident, this was their first official accident. The airplane was undamaged so no accident by definition there. However, broken leg, passenger injury, accident. As I recall, reversers were not used. Much discussion later about that.
Two percent injury rate – pretty good, well done cabin crew.
You cannot expect people whose last physical exercise was a shambling jog around a school playing field 40 years ago to jump down a 3 metre high (at least) slide, without some hurting themselves.
And what is dismissed as a “twisted knee” by ambulance crews is often reclassified as something requiring surgery and 18 months of pain.