Sen. Tammy Duckworth of the Democratic Party unveiled legislation on Thursday that would force the Federal Aviation Administration to rethink how it tests aeroplane seats. The Emergency Vacating of Airplane Cabin (EVAC) Act, which is a part of proposed legislation, would require the FAA to investigate the effects of carry-on luggage, elderly passengers, people with disabilities, and children on aircraft evacuation timeframes.

FAA Activates New GPS-Guided Routes in Alaska to Fly Below Hazardous Weather(Opens in a new browser tab)

Airlines have been reducing the size of their seats for many years, which prompted Congress to establish new guidelines in 2018 to guarantee that passengers can board and deplane an aircraft in no more than 90 seconds. However, a lot of people have criticized the tests for failing to take things like passengers with disabilities into account.

In testing under conditions that are not representative of real-world situations, Duckworth said, “That worries me.” “Almost every seat on aeroplanes is currently filled when they take off. Because of how modern commercial aviation operates, you cannot just practise evacuating an aircraft that is only 30% full.”

Duckworth, who lost both of her legs while serving in Iraq, doesn’t think she could leave a plane in less than 90 seconds “under the normal settings” she usually travels in.

The FAA said in a statement to CBS News that it is still considering the thousands of public comments on airline seat sizes that it received earlier this year. More than 200 comments including the term “torture” were included in the more than 26,000 submissions the agency received. However, the FAA claims that their testing followed to the standards set forth by Congress.

Malaysia regains US FAA’s Category 1 safety rating(Opens in a new browser tab)

According to studies conducted by the FAA in 2019 and 2020, “seat size and spacing had no detrimental effects on the success of emergency evacuations.” The volunteer passengers in the simulations did have a variety of seat sizes, but they did not have to deal with things like smoke, darkness, or luggage, and they travelled in groups of 60, which was far from a full plane.

Additionally, all participants in the simulations were healthy adults under the age of 60. Steve Dickson, who headed the FAA at the time, conceded that the findings were “helpful” but “not necessarily decisive.” A crowded plane does affect the amount of time it takes for an evacuation, according to consumer advocates and some former airline employees, including Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot responsible for the 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson” emergency landing.

“On our flight, it took more than three minutes to get everyone off the plane, in part because the water was quickly filling the aircraft from back to front. But also because it was actuality and our aircraft was full, “added Sullenberger. Airlines declared that safety was their top concern and that they would keep collaborating with the FAA.

Source: