873 "Passengers" Evacuate in 77 Seconds

It's a one-minute, 37-second YouTube video of last year's Airbus A380 evacuation that's been seen (as of this writing) nearly 8,000 times since it was posted this month.

According to the text accompanying the video, with only eight of the Airbus A380's 16 exits open, the task for this particular evaluation certification was to evacuate 853 "passengers" and 20 crew in 90 seconds in darkness. The footage was taken from infrared cameras in a darkened hangar.

Each passenger is wearing a numbered bib and you can watch the black and white video as the hand-picked "passengers" (many of which are Airbus employees) and crew quickly evacuate.

According to the YouTube Web site, the video was posted by a jospi69 from Australia, who joined the online file-sharing community April 7, 2007.

While cheering and clapping is heard from participants and observers as the quick and efficient evacuation concludes, it is worth noting that everyone shown on the video, as brought out by those who posted comments and reactions, is fit and has no problem exiting using the slides.

The trial was performed under the supervision of the European Aviation and Safety Agency EASA and a representation of the FAA. BBC News reported after the March 2006 demonstration that one man broke his leg and another 32 people had minor injuries following the evaculation.

To make the drill as realistic as possible, the volunteers represented a broad-cross section of the population in terms of age and sex; about 40% of those taking part were women, while 35% had to be over the age of 50. Three life-size dolls were carried on board to represent children under two years old.

You can view a graphic illustrating the FAA evacuation drill.

As (online screen name) mikeanncas wrote, "(The evacuation video is) totally unrealistic, where were the children, the old, crippled, or the dumb? These people were all in shape."
 
Added Alan94539, "Of course you notice every passenger is fit (not overweight), emotionally composed, reacts to instructions, waits their turn, and is not afraid of the slide. I think real-life might be a bit different."

Some viewers were relieved at seeing the video. Wrote lewis0100, "Thank you so much for posting this!" I have been looking forever to try and find something like this. It is so amazing that 873 people could get out of the aeroplane in total darkness, with blocked exits and debris in the aisle in 77 seconds."

And this from virtualpilot88, "5 stars! Thanks for sharing!"

So you be the judge. You can view the YouTube video.

Evacuation Coverage and Analysis

In a February 2005 story about the impending evacuation, the Seattle Post-Intelligence Reporter reported that the volunteers would have to step over and around luggage, pillows and blankets scattered in the aisles, quickly navigating through a dark cabin with flight attendants barking orders and only the jet's emergency internal lighting to show the way.

Counting the time it takes more than 850 passengers to find which of the jet's 16 exits are open — only half will be, and the participants won't know which when the test starts — they'll have to average about 1.2 people per second through each doorway.

It is all part of a drill that Airbus and The Boeing have had to go through during certification of their new jets, including Boeing's 747. But never have so many people had to get off an airplane in only a minute and a half — and never from two full-length decks at the same time, as reported ANN.

The normal number of crew members must also be off the plane within the 90 seconds.

Some aviation safety experts, as well as flight attendants and their union, have expressed concerned about the double-deck design and what could happen in a real-life evacuation, in conditions that a drill cannot possibly duplicate.

"You have taken a two-dimensional evacuation plan and made it three dimensional" (with the upper deck), said Tim Snyder, an expert in risk analysis at Connecticut's Fairfield University. Snyder's is a member of the occupant safety issues group of an aviation rule-making advisory committee to the Federal Aviation Administration.

"This is radically different," he said of the A380. "You have people expected to jump from slides from much greater heights."

There are countless interactions during a real emergency evacuation, he added, "that cannot be accounted for in computer modeling or a controlled demonstration.

Passengers, for instance, can refuse to jump on a slide, creating bottlenecks and confusion. On the A380, some upper-deck passengers might decide to flee down the two sets of stairs at the front and rear of the plane that connect the main deck.

Or if there were smoke and fire on the main deck, Snyder said, some passengers there might suddenly take the stairs to the upper deck.

"You could have people going in both directions," Snyder said.

Emergency evacuations of modern jetliners are not uncommon.

In 2000, the NTSB issued a study of emergency evacuations of commercial airplanes, investigating 46 evacuations between September 1997 and June 1999. The board found that on average, an emergency evacuation was occurring every 11 days.

Evacuation Concerns

There are 16 exits and emergency slides on the A380-800. The six upper deck slides — three on each side — are 26 feet above the ground. There are eight exits and slides on the main deck, as well as two off-wing exits.

The slides, according to maker Goodrich, will have gone through more than 2,500 functional tests by the time the A380 is certified.

The International Transport Workers Federation, representing airline cabin crews worldwide, issued a 2004 paper that raised concerns about A380 emergency evacuations.

"The novel design of the A380, with two stacked high-density seating platforms connected by two sets of stairways, will pose a number of new problems in the area of passenger management, communication, coordination, and evacuation," the International Transport Workers Federation (ITWF) noted in its paper. The ITWF represents airline cabin crews worldwide.

The FAA said those concerns are unfounded.

"The intent is for Airbus to run a single, full-scale, full-airplane demonstration," the FAA said in a written response to questions for this article.

The A380-800 can seat about 880 passengers in a one-class, high-density configuration. That limit is based on the number of exits for the plane, according to the FAA.

Airbus says its plane could seat about 555 passengers in a typical three-class cabin configuration. Several airlines that have ordered the A380 have indicated they will put around 500 seats on the two decks, with the upper deck for business and premium seating. Emirates has said it could have about 650 seats in a two-class configuration on a few of the A380s that it has on order.

The certification test requires the maximum number of passengers to be on the plane, the FAA said, adding that it is up to Airbus to decide the actual number.

An FAA review of 19 full-scale evacuation demonstrations between 1972 and 1991 involving 5,797 participants found that 269, or about 4.5 percent, were injured.

In one of the demonstrations involving the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 with 410 passengers, a participant was seriously injured, resulting in paralysis.

"The FAA believes that a 4.5 percent injury rate during an emergency evacuation demonstration is not an acceptable safety practice," the agency said in its comments that accompanied the recent rule changes.

"The potential for injuries is obviously a concern to both Airbus and the authorities and will be taken into consideration when the details are worked out," the FAA said in one of the agency's written responses to questions about the A380 evacuation.

Even though injuries do occur, this is a critical safety demonstration, said Snyder, the risk-analysis expert. The demonstrations are valuable to crew members for developing evacuation procedures, he said. That is especially important on the A380, he said.

"Do you want to do this in the testing stage," Snyder said, "or do you want the first full test to be one in which the cabin is filled with smoke and fire?"

Said former Airbus COO and Head of A380 program Charles Champion following the evacuation certification last year, "Although the final number as confirmed by the Authority will only be known in a few days, we are very happy with this result. It clears the way for the transportation of passengers as defined by our initial customers who all have selected very comfortable three class layouts. And even in a higher density two class layout, the A380 cabin will continue to set new standards of comfort."

Charles Champion was the third executive to leave his job after major production bottlenecks forced the company to announce a six- month delay in A380 deliveries, reported the International Herald Tribune in September 2006. The news sparked a management crisis at Airbus and its parent company, European Aeronautic Defense & Space, in July that resulted in the resignation of the Airbus chief executive, Gustav Humbert, and Noël Forgeard, the French co-chairman of EADS.

Champion was replaced by Mario Heinen, of Luxembourg, who until then was in charge of the company's highly successful A320 narrow-body jet program.

The evacuation trial was the most stringent ever performed and the first ever on a passenger aircraft with two decks.

The aircraft was fitted with a very high density cabin layout, featuring 853 seats which were all occupied. In addition there were two cockpit crew members and 18 cabin crews from Lufthansa on board to manage the evacuation in a representative way. The trial was performed in darkness and filmed by infrared cameras. The doors and slides that were operative were not known before the trial.

FMI: www.youtube.com, www.airbus.com