Federal regulators say all airline passengers must be able to evacuate a plane within 90 seconds. The FAA reauthorization bill would require the agency to reconsider its testing standards.

If an airplane has to be evacuated, the Federal Aviation Administration says all passengers must be capable of getting outwithin 90 seconds.

But critics say the agency’s testing standards have not kept pace with the shrinking size of airplane seats — which means more people jammed into the cabin — or the changing composition of the flying public.

“This is ridiculous. This is not how we travel today,” said U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) in an interview.

Duckworth argues the FAA’s current tests fail to take real world conditions into consideration.

“They did not mimic the seat density of a modern aircraft. They had no carry-on baggage. They had nobody over the age of 60 and nobody under the age of 18,” said Duckworth, a former Army helicopter pilot who lost both her legs in the Iraq war.

“They didn’t have anybody with a disability. Of course they were able to evacuate the aircraft in 90 seconds,” she said.

  • corsicanguppy
    1·
    1 month ago

    how many deaths are attributable to slow evacuation

    You mean like the Station Fire?