Originally Posted by
Ripton
This raises the question of whether the strip lighting on the aisle floor designed to guide passengers to the exit would only come on in an emergency to guide passengers to emergency exits that had been opened or whether it all comes on together regardless that it might guide you in the wrong direction? Not something I've ever considered as a passenger before.
Originally Posted by
etrang
The question is about the lights in the floor, the aisle floor lighting, which is a good question.
Etrang, I agree.
Ripton, what I was trying to say, and did not, as far as I can remember, ALL the lights come on together. It is probably way too farfetched to have a system that can determine which lights come on at one time. Here in the US, these two 14 CFRs appear to be ruling:
§121.310 Additional emergency equipment.
(c)
Lighting for interior emergency exit markings. Except for nontransport category airplanes type certificated after December 31, 1964, each passenger-carrying airplane must have an emergency lighting system, independent of the main lighting system. However, sources of general cabin illumination may be common to both the emergency and the main lighting systems if the power supply to the emergency lighting system is independent of the power supply to the main lighting system.
(3) For airplanes type certificated after January 1, 1958, after November 26, 1986, include floor proximity emergency escape path marking which meets the requirements of §25.812(e) of this chapter in effect on November 26, 1984.
.
§25.812 Emergency lighting.
(e) Floor proximity emergency escape path marking must provide emergency evacuation guidance for passengers when all sources of illumination more than 4 feet above the cabin aisle floor are totally obscured. In the dark of the night, the floor proximity emergency escape path marking must enable each passenger to—
(1) After leaving the passenger seat, visually identify the emergency escape path along the cabin aisle floor to the first exits or pair of exits forward and aft of the seat; and
(2) Readily identify each exit from the emergency escape path by reference only to markings and visual features not more than 4 feet above the cabin floor.