Originally published at: Senator Demands FAA Data on Evacuation Safety - AVweb
Duckworth cites runway fires and videos of carry-on luggage in probe
Perhaps its time for a penalty for those who take the time to grab bags before thevmake an emergency exit. Although i might have some leniency for the parents that grabbed a diaper bag along with their child as long as it wasnt in an overhead bin.
Perhaps a period on the “no fly” list would have some effect. However (hopefully) most of the miscreants are tourons that might not plan a flight again for years, so it wouldn’t have a real effect on other tourons.
I fervently hope that business flyers are not guilty of grabbing their brief cases on the way out.
I flew for a major airline for 35 years, and I never had to conduct an evacuation. That said, I also resigned myself to the fact that if I ever did evacuate, there would be injuries. The rules about not bringing carryons with you in the evacuation procedure are there for good reasons. Those rules don’t need to be changed; they need to be enforced.
It’s about time this got a harder look. The certification standard is for the full aircraft to be evacuated in 90 seconds using half of the available exits. They test this using people who are relatively fit, unincumbered, well-rehearsed, and in a low-stress situation. There’s no way this standard is achievable with the average fitness, ability, and mindset of the flying public.
As tenuous as timely evacuation is given the above, I firmly support enforcement action against anyone found to have taken luggage during an evacuation.
Your concluding statement is great; but you need to check the guidance in FAA Order 8900.1. The evacuees used are to be naive and average “street folk”. There may be no rehearsal or other preparation of the demonstration evacuees.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Duckworth needs a serious reality check.
The issue here is a senator’s misunderstanding of a certification requirement. Each requirement is designed to assure a safe aircraft. Such as a 1/5 x maxim load for aa wing. The max load is determined for a normal category plane with there max G w max load that x 1.5. This is to assure the wing will survive the max g loading with a given fact of safety which will account for minor damage in use, non perfect fabrication and the like. the exit criterea is to assure the aircraft can be evacuated in a reasonable time with a reasonable restriction. this does NOT mean every evacuation will be done in. 90 seconds. Juts that it can be done in such a time that is is reasonable to assume passenger safety. NOW the real way to determine in this is a satisfactory requirement would be to look at the record of evacuation and determine if a vast majority of the passengers got out of the plane safely. The goal of the requirement is to fulfill that goal. NOT a 90 second time. AS for passengers taking bags that is a crew responsibility. I would believe the only way to get every one off a loaded 787 while grabbing thier carry ones would be to use a series of explosive bolts an such and a tow rig to blow the darn thing apart and drag the shell out of the runway.
Taken with a grain of salt from a non pilot! Air disasters are at least 10 times the potential problem of ground problems. One almost always can run away from a ground problem. One just dies in any air collision. Who will set the Senator strait on the realities for air transport?