korrol
26th Aug 2011, 17:26
As someone who just flies as SLF these days I hope it's useful to flag up potential problems which passengers may encounter - particularly in evacuating from smaller airliners (i.e. below 20 seats) which don't carry flight attendants.
A couple of weeks ago there were some very useful responses to a point I'd raised about how passengers - in an emergency - should go about opening the door of a Jetstream; because the passenger safety card wasn't very clear.
The Dornier 228 seems a better aircraft than the Jetstream as it has four exits as opposed the Jetstream's two . However there's still only the one door. - and this (see photo) is what passengers are confronted with in an emergency.
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff468/korrol/DSC04720.jpg
You'll see that the word "pull" has worn off the red handle. The added complication is that, in any case, the passenger has to press a silver button located below the handle BEFORE operating the handle itself. Unfortunately the wording adjacent to the button doesn't say "Push Button to Open" it just says "Push to Open" - raising the question "Push what"? (We're assuming a full emergency here with fire and people panicking).
As usual the flight safety card in the seat pockets doesn't help.
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff468/korrol/DSC04719.jpg
The card seems to show the button in the same position as the door handle - but doesn't actually make it clear these are two different features on the door with the button being located below the handle. The card also shows the door handle being moved to a down position - or from a down position to a horisontal position - to open the door. However the real door handle is in a horizontal position when locked and has to be (a) pulled out and (b) moved upwards to a vertical position (or at least that's what I saw the pilots doing when they opened it from inside).
I realise that most people would probably work this out eventually - but in a situation where seconds count - it could matter. I wondered if anyone else has any thoughts on this?
A couple of weeks ago there were some very useful responses to a point I'd raised about how passengers - in an emergency - should go about opening the door of a Jetstream; because the passenger safety card wasn't very clear.
The Dornier 228 seems a better aircraft than the Jetstream as it has four exits as opposed the Jetstream's two . However there's still only the one door. - and this (see photo) is what passengers are confronted with in an emergency.
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff468/korrol/DSC04720.jpg
You'll see that the word "pull" has worn off the red handle. The added complication is that, in any case, the passenger has to press a silver button located below the handle BEFORE operating the handle itself. Unfortunately the wording adjacent to the button doesn't say "Push Button to Open" it just says "Push to Open" - raising the question "Push what"? (We're assuming a full emergency here with fire and people panicking).
As usual the flight safety card in the seat pockets doesn't help.
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff468/korrol/DSC04719.jpg
The card seems to show the button in the same position as the door handle - but doesn't actually make it clear these are two different features on the door with the button being located below the handle. The card also shows the door handle being moved to a down position - or from a down position to a horisontal position - to open the door. However the real door handle is in a horizontal position when locked and has to be (a) pulled out and (b) moved upwards to a vertical position (or at least that's what I saw the pilots doing when they opened it from inside).
I realise that most people would probably work this out eventually - but in a situation where seconds count - it could matter. I wondered if anyone else has any thoughts on this?