Aerospace Medicine Technical Reports
FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-04/2
Title and Subtitle: Access-To-Egress III: Repeated Measurement of Factors That Control the Emergency Evacuation of Passengers Through the Transport Airplane Type-III Overwing Exit
Report Date: January 2004
Authors: McLean GA, Corbett CL
Abstract: Simulated emergency evacuations were conducted from a narrow-body transport airplane simulator through a Type-III overwing exit. The independent variables were passageway configuration, hatch disposal location, subject group size (density), and subject motivation level. Additional variables of interest included individual subject characteristics, i.e., gender, age, waist size, and height, shown in previous studies to significantly affect emergency egress. Subjects were restricted to those who had no previous emergency evacuation (research) history.
Evacuation trials were conducted with 48 groups of either 30, 50, or 70 subjects per group, totaling 2,544 subject participants. Each subject group completed 4 evacuation trials, totaling 192 group evacuations, which included 10,176 individual subject exit crossings. The dependent variable of interest was individual subject egress time.Small but significant independent variable main effects on mean individual egress times were found for passageway configuration (p.001), subject group motivation (p.001), and subject group density (p.05); significance of these effects was potentiated by the extremely large number of subject observations.
The effects of subject waist size (p.0001), gender (p.0001), and age (p.0001) on mean individual egress times were much more robust. The within-subjects main effect of evacuation trial (experience) failed to achieve significance (p.63), although within-subjects effects were found for group motivation level (p.0004), the combination of group motivation level and hatch disposal location (p=.03), and the combination of passageway configuration and hatch disposal location (p.007), via their interactions with individual egress trial.
The findings replicate prior research showing that the physical attributes of subjects produce large differences in emergency evacuation performance, whereas airplane configuration has minimal effects on emergency egress, as long as ergonomic minimums are respected. Where such problems do exist, evacuation experience acts to mitigate such negative effects, as does proper passenger management by flight attendants.
Key Words: Aircraft Evacuation, Passageway Configuration, Hatch Operation, Competitive Egress, Individual Subject Characteristics, Passenger Management
No. of Pages: 24
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-04/2
Title and Subtitle: Access-To-Egress III: Repeated Measurement of Factors That Control the Emergency Evacuation of Passengers Through the Transport Airplane Type-III Overwing Exit
Report Date: January 2004
Authors: McLean GA, Corbett CL
Abstract: Simulated emergency evacuations were conducted from a narrow-body transport airplane simulator through a Type-III overwing exit. The independent variables were passageway configuration, hatch disposal location, subject group size (density), and subject motivation level. Additional variables of interest included individual subject characteristics, i.e., gender, age, waist size, and height, shown in previous studies to significantly affect emergency egress. Subjects were restricted to those who had no previous emergency evacuation (research) history.
Evacuation trials were conducted with 48 groups of either 30, 50, or 70 subjects per group, totaling 2,544 subject participants. Each subject group completed 4 evacuation trials, totaling 192 group evacuations, which included 10,176 individual subject exit crossings. The dependent variable of interest was individual subject egress time.Small but significant independent variable main effects on mean individual egress times were found for passageway configuration (p.001), subject group motivation (p.001), and subject group density (p.05); significance of these effects was potentiated by the extremely large number of subject observations.
The effects of subject waist size (p.0001), gender (p.0001), and age (p.0001) on mean individual egress times were much more robust. The within-subjects main effect of evacuation trial (experience) failed to achieve significance (p.63), although within-subjects effects were found for group motivation level (p.0004), the combination of group motivation level and hatch disposal location (p=.03), and the combination of passageway configuration and hatch disposal location (p.007), via their interactions with individual egress trial.
The findings replicate prior research showing that the physical attributes of subjects produce large differences in emergency evacuation performance, whereas airplane configuration has minimal effects on emergency egress, as long as ergonomic minimums are respected. Where such problems do exist, evacuation experience acts to mitigate such negative effects, as does proper passenger management by flight attendants.
Key Words: Aircraft Evacuation, Passageway Configuration, Hatch Operation, Competitive Egress, Individual Subject Characteristics, Passenger Management
No. of Pages: 24
Last updated: Friday, June 1, 2012