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.