Evacuation Drill for Airbus Super Jumbo Injures 33

The new Airbus double-deck A380 can hold as many 873 people, including crew. This means that the jet has to be able to evacuate that many people safely in the event of an emergency. A test for just that was held over the week-end, resulting in 33 injured. “That was a very great success,” Airbus manager Gustav Humbert. Really?

The test was held in a darkened hangar in Hamburg, Germany, and although the testing folks put junk in the aisles, conditions weren’t really realistic. In defense of the company, only 8 of the 16 exits were used. If all 16 were available, perhaps no one would have been hurt. At the same time, real emergency evacuations don’t always allow for all the exits to be used.

With 33 hurt, that means 840 got off OK, and of the 33, only 1 was serious; one man broke a leg. A great many of the other injuries were friction burns from sliding down the escape ramps. When viewed as percentages, that might not be too bad. On any given day, 1 serious injury out of 873 could well be a statistically good rate. However, in situations like that, consumers and regulators may want something better than average results for this test since, in a real emergency, there will be other risks not part of the test such as smoke inhalation or burns from fire or hot metal.

According to Airbus, the test would have been a success if 650 people got out within 90 seconds. This would appear to be an awful result if the plane were burning or if there were some noxious fumes in the fuselage – effectively, this standard would accept 200+ injuries or worse. Fortunately, the actual result was all 873 people were successfully evacuated in 80 seconds. That is still a long time to be in a life threatening situation.

There is nothing to suggest that there is anything unsafe about the A380. Nor is there any reason for the authorities to declare the test a failure. However, if Airbus were truly smart about the safety issue with a plane this big, it would run the drill one more time. There is a risk of another broken leg, but it might just help sell the plane if it gets a better score next time.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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