From another site:
"Airbus is planning to introduce the world’s largest passenger plane, the A380 carrying up to 1,000 passengers, without conducting a full evacuation test.
The company says that it is afraid that people could be permanently injured in the exercise.
At least 200 passengers will sit 30ft above ground on the highest deck on a full Airbus A380. They would have to jump down an inflatable slide in an emergency.
Airbus fears that any injuries in a full evacuation test would be exploited by Boeing, its rival, and could undermine the whole project.
Instead, it is planning to conduct tests involving only a fraction of the total number of passengers.
Scientists will then use mathematical models in an attempt to demonstrate to the safety authorities — Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority and America’s Federal Aviation Administration — that the plane is safe.
The A380 marketing director, said: “If you subject more than 800 people to an evacuation test and someone comes off the bottom of the slide and someone else hits them from behind, you have to ask why we have maimed somebody. There will be questions asked if someone is left a paraplegic.”
A spokesman for the CAA said it was hoped that an evacuation simulator at Cranfield University would reduce the need for live tests. While at present a full evacuation test was required for all new aircraft, the simulator could be used by Airbus “to do a lot of the research on the safety of extremely large aircraft”. He added: “Obviously if you do full evacuations, you do run the risk of injuring people. In future there could well be a lot of work done with computer scenarios.”