4 ms·

The standard is 90 seconds, not 18 minutes = 1080 seconds. They were very lucky the fire took its time. Yes, it's necessary to shut down the engines where poss

The standard is 90 seconds, not 18 minutes = 1080 seconds. They were very lucky the fire took its time. Yes, it's necessary to shut down the engines where possible (not this case). Cabin crew waiting to confer with flight crew can waste precious seconds. In this case, we may be dealing with smoke inhalation injuries.

pcl 3y ago
From the article: ”The A350-900 was certified for a full load of up to 440 passengers to be evacuated within 90 seconds with only half of the exits usable. It was not immediately clear what portion of the 18-minute operation was spent physically getting passengers down slides”
TacticalCoder 3y ago
Yeah: I think it's 18 minutes from the plane touching down the other plane, not the plane standing still... But still: it's very, very, very long. With 3 safe exits (out of 8 apparently), and 367 passengers+crew, that's 123 passenger per exit. 18 minutes means 7 passenger per minute per exit. How the heck do you need ten seconds per passenger to hop on the slide? Even the videos from this crash show a much higher throughput.
- Leherenn 3y ago
  Could it be that a significant portion of the passengers were evacuated quickly, but the last few might have taken a while? I assume someone with reduced mobility/requiring a wheelchair will take a while to evacuate. And if there are more of them than flight attendants, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes that long.
pintxo 3y ago
The idea why cabin crew shall check with the flight deck before evacuating is so that a single flight attended might not have the full picture and inadvertently open a door close to a fire or similar. Which could severely reduce the time the airframe can withstand fire. The idea is to gain some situational awareness and only open those doors clear of obvious risks. The flight deck has for example access to ATC which can give them additional outside information that the flight attendants don’t have.

pcl 3y ago

From the article: ”The A350-900 was certified for a full load of up to 440 passengers to be evacuated within 90 seconds with only half of the exits usable. It was not immediately clear what portion of the 18-minute operation was spent physically getting passengers down slides”

TacticalCoder 3y ago

Yeah: I think it's 18 minutes from the plane touching down the other plane, not the plane standing still... But still: it's very, very, very long. With 3 safe exits (out of 8 apparently), and 367 passengers+crew, that's 123 passenger per exit. 18 minutes means 7 passenger per minute per exit. How the heck do you need ten seconds per passenger to hop on the slide? Even the videos from this crash show a much higher throughput.

Leherenn 3y ago
Could it be that a significant portion of the passengers were evacuated quickly, but the last few might have taken a while? I assume someone with reduced mobility/requiring a wheelchair will take a while to evacuate. And if there are more of them than flight attendants, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes that long.

pintxo 3y ago

The idea why cabin crew shall check with the flight deck before evacuating is so that a single flight attended might not have the full picture and inadvertently open a door close to a fire or similar. Which could severely reduce the time the airframe can withstand fire. The idea is to gain some situational awareness and only open those doors clear of obvious risks. The flight deck has for example access to ATC which can give them additional outside information that the flight attendants don’t have.