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.
The easy answer to the disabled question is the row right behind the first class bulkhead. Well, removing that row and using the second row for the disabled.
Ok, now imagine there are more people than fit in one row on the same flight. Or a group of elderly people with mobility issues that are not ‘disabled’.
Also people with back problems, that have a hard time squeezing out of tight rows. Pregnant people 9 months along. Someone who just had leg surgery. Or a group of 30 people with mobility issues who are all going to a conference about mobility issues.
One row is not enough. They could sacrifice 10% of rows and give all of the other rows a significantly more space on most planes.