The miracle of Japan Airlines plane crash evacuation, all 367 passengers and 12 crew survived

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{{{ But a lot went right too. Once the doors were open, passengers calmed down and followed directions. The airline said it was prepared to stop people who tried to bring along bulky carry-on luggage—a vexing human instinct that has bedeviled previous evacuations—and wasn’t aware of anyone who did it. Although the rear of the of the

Airbus

A350 was aflame, the fire didn’t spread into the aircraft’s interior until minutes later. }}}

Lesson here is that the Japanese people know how to follow instructions. No doubt an American airliner in the same predicament would have lost scores of entitled passengers attempting to drag their carry-on luggage through the flames.

intercst

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Not to mention all those “burdensome, job killing, regulations about emergency egress, that make your plane ticket cost more.”

Steve

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It’s interesting to see how a carbon fiber aircraft fuselage burns. If you look at the photos, the cabin has disappeared, leaving just the wing and the engines.

It appears that the photo has be censored for some reason. Just click on the gray box and ask to open it in a new window if you’re having a problem.

1890×1260 359 KB

intercst

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Re: Japanese people follow instructions.

In Japan the nail head that sticks up gets hammered down. Its a regimented society. Conformity is expected–even required.

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Maybe this helped. But it took 18 minutes to evacuate.
The FAA certification for that plane requires 90 seconds according to the WSJ article. The article also has details of how they run the 90 sec test. (dim lighting, debris in the aisles, various age groups by gender)

The tests are an expensive and critical piece of the certification process. Airbus and Boeing recruit hundreds of volunteers to act as passengers on board with at least 40% of the participants required to be female, 35% over the age of 50 and a minimum 15% both female and over 50. Three life-size dolls must be carried to simulate real infants aged 2 years or younger.

Cabin luggage, blankets and pillows are also required to be strewn across the floor to create minor obstructions, and the lighting in the cabin must be dimmed to simulate the conditions of a catastrophic event. Only half the aircraft’s exits can be used—for the A350, that would mean four of eight—and passengers aren’t given a warning of when the evacuation is set to take place.

Mike

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18 minutes is a long time to evacuate a plane in an emergency. A REALLY long time!

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Americans would have used the George Costanza method:

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In reading the article, it seems it took a while for them to figure out where the flames were. You don’t want to open a door, only to have smoke and flames burst into the cabin.

Still, once the doors were open, they say it took 10 minutes before the last crew member exited the cabin. It might be that passengers exited in 3 minutes, and a dedicated crew spent 7 minutes checking the cabin to make sure nobody was left behind. I’m sure we’ll get an exact timeline when they release the accident report in a few years.

intercst

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No matter what they do, including proving with random hapless old and young people chosen for a test, showing that an aircraft can be reasonably emptied in 3 minutes is not the whole story. No matter what, people looking at flames, smelling nasty smoke, moving in the dark will move only as fast as they will move.

I know. I never herded cats, but I have helped herd cows across a river some of them did not want to cross.

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