The biggest factor in survival in an aircraft accident is distance from the emergency exit. Which I would argue is evidence that there aren’t enough of them on planes…
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That’s not really possible, though. The big, square-ish holes that are cabin doors and emergency exits are really bad structural weak points, and if you add too many of them you greatly shorten the aircraft’s usable life.
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Co-STAN-zaaa!
In an evacuation scenario, you should consider your bags as lost. Your life is not worth some bullshit stuff, no matter what the emotional connection you may have to it. But, yeah, most people won’t think like that. They think that they are just going to get off the plane via a jetway or stairs like they boarded; not that they have to use the evac slides in a tarmac evac like this.
Absolutely. I’m very pragmatic about keeping order in an evacuation situation, but if you’re doing something stupid to keep me from getting out of a life-or-death situation, I will go around, over or through you to get my ass out of it.
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Maybe I’m giving people too much credit, but it doesn’t have to be an emotional connection to stuff necessarily. No one wants to be without their phone/wallet/passport in the best of circumstances; in the worst, they would seem even more vital. Plus, I can understand a strong compulsion to make sure you have those things, since even at a subconscious level you’re likely to associate them with being able to function and necessary to life. Not saying that people should take time to grab them! Just that it might not be attachment to your favorite jacket or something that drives people to behave that way.
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I think you might be, mostly because those should either be kept on one’s person (I always keep my phone and passport in my pockets) or in a handbag under the seat in front of you; not in a bag in the overhead bin. If someone is to use that to store things they find absolutely invaluable, they are taking it at their own risk and should not be rifiling through their bags during an evac.
Evac called, you take your person and any other living things under your charge with you. That’s it.
That’s true-ish, but often on flights my bag has ended up in the overhead compartment because I’ve been limited to one bag, so it’s usually a bookbag or a large purse (one big enough to fit my computer, since I don’t want to check it, as well as the portfolio/file/folder thing in which I keep all my visa documentation, tickets, other important info), and a not insignificant amount of the time, the flight attendants make me store it in the overhead bin. On the other hand, now that I think of it, 90% of the flights I’ve taken have been between the US and the UK, thus the bag restriction, so I may actually be giving people too much credit after all.
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Nod, this is a long-haul Emerates flight; even in economy people are given an allowance of a handbag, a rollaboard case, and at least one included checked bag. But even then, the absolute vitals should not be in the overhead bins; those should be off limits during an evac (in fact I wish they could be locked once an evac is called). The bins being open slows people down from getting out of seats, people rifiling thorugh bags in them keeps people from getting out, and you can’t take bags on the slide. If you show up to the slide with a bag, the FA will sure as shit grab it from you and chuck it out of the plane. Last thing you want is an edge of a bag snagging the evac slide and tearing a hole in it.
Look at the pictures of the plane after the fire was extinguished. That plane wasn’t a mere hull loss (written off, like if your frame is bent on a car), it was ravaged by fire. Fire on an aircraft is no time to worry about even how much of a pain getting a new phone or passport will be. You do not want to be made dead. And the passengers behnind you do not want that of themselves either.
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Oh, of course! I’d never go to the overhead bin even if my passport was in it during an evacuation. Just saying it HAS ended up there more than a few things. Blame women’s clothing, maybe, it’s nearly impossible to find anything with actual pockets.
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this is what bothers me about plane evacuations - i saw a youtube video of them testing the evacuation time for the A380. looks great and everything, but those people are primed and ready, and their whole goal is to get off the plane as fast as possible. they’re not worried about their stuff, they’re not looking for grandma, they’re getting off the plane. how does that compare with real-life evacuation times?
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My yeasts!
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.[quote=“novium, post:30, topic:82759”]
Blame women’s clothing, maybe, it’s nearly impossible to find anything with actual pockets.
[/quote]
Yet another way, along with heels and nylons that women’s clothing is trying to kill or maim you if there is an emergency in an airplane
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They’re also significantly heavier than a simple window, reducing range and/or payload. Safety measures usually carry a cost. It would be interesting to balance the cost/benefit of more emergency exits versus other changes.
I don’t think that people are intentionally putting the lives of others at risk to grab their stuff…But people just don’t realize just how much time taking an extra 5 seconds costs when you multiply it by 100 people trying to get out to the exit. (more than 8 minutes) And they don’t realize just how important that time IS until they can see actual flames in the cabin, when it is just about too late.
Yup! And I’m sure that the engineers at Boeing and Airbus are doing just that. I mean the long-haul craft do have a lot of emergency exits, usually at least 8 and if not more. But it would nice from a curiosity standpoint to see the acutal results.
ETA: Oh, and one other limiting factor is you need to have the flight crew to support more exits, each exit that’s being used needs a member of the flight crew to make sure no one either pulls the slide cut cord or brings something dumb with them on the slide; but since most of the long haul flights have have somewhere around 14 to 16 flight crew (cabin and cockpit crew) that’s not too bad if you add extra doors.
That’s a good point, high heals should be banned on planes. Give those security checkpoints something useful to do!
Yeah, and it’s only 5 seconds for the bag under your seat; the overhead bin you’ll be in there for at least 20-30 seconds to open, grab and (hopefully) close the bin if you don’t have to move around people to get to it.
This is also why I appreciate my ability to spend more on getting into first, business, or premium economy over standard economy. The lower passenger density helps being able to get around the people who don’t think how serious an evac is and most of the people in those classes fly much more frequently and will actively know what’s up with an evac.
The BA safety briefing instructs people to remove any high heels in the event of evac, and the flight crew will make sure that no one jumps on the slide with puncture shoes.
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BA? As in B. A. Baracus?
“Pity the fool who doesn’t take off their high heeled shoes on the evac slide.”
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