I attended Cranfield as part of my ATC course.
We tried out the evacuation simulator. The overwing exit weighs about 20-25 kgs and has a tendency to fall in on the person releasing it.
They told us that they did do tests with the door in place and that in order to create a panic situation they employed students and gave £20 to the first 20 out of the aircraft.
They had to cut short those experiments though because of the amount of injuries, including broken bones that occured!!!
PS very disappointed with the program in general and Alan Whicker in particular. Lets face it 30 mins is not enough time to cover any one of these stories sufficientley , let alone all four of them.
[ 24 July 2001: Message edited by: Bagheera ]