by Many of us flying home from the Christmas holidays this week are likely to pay closer attention to the safety video following the evacuation of a textbook Japan Airlines Airbus A350-900 that caught fire while landing at Haneda airport in Tokyo on Tuesday. All passengers in modern aircraft must be able to take off in an emergency in just 90 seconds – which was the total time the 379 passengers and crew on board Flight 516 had before the fire. jet by flames on the. tarmac after colliding with a coastguard patrol plane on approach.
Social media footage showed passengers escaping the jet using the yellow evacuation slides at the front of the plane. Escape routes and one rear slide could not be used as the engines and rear fuselage were on fire.
One reason why everyone on board survived – 17 of them with injuries – was that no one seemed to find any carry-on luggage. “There was no appearance at all [passengers with] to carry, so the cabin crew must have done an excellent job,” said Paul Hayes, director of air safety at UK aviation consultancy Ascend by Cirium.
When an airliner crashes and catches fire passengers can survive inside the fuselage for two minutes – provided it is in one piece. After that, the heat becomes too intense. Cabin crew practice every year to ensure they can safely disembark all passengers. The key is to make sure you don’t hesitate.
In August 2016, Emirates Flight 521 from Thiruvananthapuram in India crashed at Dubai International Airport. As the evacuation began, passengers opened overhead bins to collect their carry-on bags. The team repeated: “Leave everything! Leave your bags behind!” All 282 passengers and 18 crew members got off in the moments before the plane caught fire.
An Aeroflot jet made an emergency landing in Moscow in May 2019 and burst into flames. Forty-one passengers in the back of the aircraft were unable to escape in time and died. A video of the survivors showed them fleeing with their carry-on luggage. Observers speculated that the time spent retrieving their bags may have contributed to the deaths of their fellow passengers.
The other main task of the cabin crew is to identify animal by-products – capable people – who can help with the evacuation if the worst happens. The crew usually know which passengers are off-duty crew members, military personnel, emergency service personnel and medical professionals. ABP is instructed to operate an exit, assist passengers from the bottom of the slides, and guide them as quickly as possible away from the stricken aircraft.
Modern aircraft manufacturers adhere to strict safety standards that help make evacuations as safe and quick as possible. The yellow spring evacuation slides are released from each door and inflate in less than 10 seconds. Emergency lights on the aircraft floor come on automatically and are colour-coded. Green lights mark an exit – useful if the cabin is full of smoke, as was the case on the Japan Airlines flight. The seats are made of flame-retardant foam and electrical cables and fuel lines are protected with kevlar.
Modern aircraft, like the Airbus A350-900 that crashed at Haneda, are made of composite materials – such as carbon fiber – which are stronger than metal and, therefore, less likely to break on impact. The fuselage of the Japan Airlines jet remained intact despite hitting the smaller aircraft.
Crew and aircraft manufacturers regularly perform full-scale emergency evacuation demonstrations of all types of jets and try to make them as realistic as possible. Elderly volunteers take their seats – every seat – alongside a full crew. Dolls are used instead of small children. Only a few exits are used – which could be the case in a real emergency, as the Japan Airlines crash shows. Pillows, blankets and small carrier bags that fit under seats are spread around the cabin to create obstacles.
The “passengers” know why they are there but are not told the evacuation plan, which doors and slides will be used, or when the demonstration will begin. Lights can go out, leaving only the emergency floor lights for guidance, and cabins can fill with smoke. A double decker superjumbo Airbus A380 was tested in the dark in 2006. 873 people reached the ground in just 78 seconds.
What is the best way to prepare for evacuation? The first tip is the simplest. Check that your seat belt is fastened. In 2013 an Asiana Boeing 777 crashed short of the runway at San Francisco. The landing gear, engines and tail broke from the main fuselage as the jet skidded along the runway. Despite fire and smoke inside the cabin, 304 of the 307 on board survived. Two people who died were found not to be wearing seat belts; the third died six days later.
Mateusz Maszczynski, a flight attendant who publishes Paddleyourownkanoo.com, a blog for airline crew members, advises: “Keep the rows between you and the nearest exit. If visibility is severely reduced, you need this information to quickly find a way out.” Others recommend wearing sneakers, rather than heels or flip-flops. Spending two hours on the Wetherspoons flights is also not a good idea.
If you’re reading this on a plane and it’s a little scary, remember this. Emergency evacuations are extremely rare. The US regulator, the Federal Aviation Authority, reports an average of 30 each year worldwide – out of nearly 40 million flights. So fasten your seat belt and check the nearest exit, but try to relax.
