Aircraft emergency evacuation procedures: Passengers risk lives by taking carry-on luggage.

How long do you reckon it's going to take to evacuate an aircraft in an emergency? That's every passenger and crew member, out of their seats and down the evacuation slides, starting from the time the emergency exits pop open to the time when the cabin is completely empty. In a smoke-filled cabin with the aircraft on fire, and possibly with some of the emergency exits blocked or unusable. Considering there are probably some wheelchair passengers on board, plus solo parents with babies and infants. Two or three minutes, maybe longer?

How about 90 seconds? Because 90 seconds is the time required for an aircraft with a seating capacity of more than 44 passengers to achieve certification by Europe's Joint Aviation Regulations or the Federal Aviation Regulations in the USA.

To demonstrate compliance, an aircraft manufacturer must perform a full-scale evacuation demonstration, in darkness, with half the available exits blocked and with a gender mix as close as possible to that on a typical flight. Crew and passengers don't know which exits will be blocked and all passengers and crew are expected to be out of the aircraft and on the ground within 90 seconds. If not, the aircraft can't be certified as a commercial aircraft.

By Michael Gebicki.

Full story at Traveller