Thanks Lionel,
Currently we teach students to stay with the aircraft until advised to leave by the captain (on the surface) – we also reinforce the need to check for puncture hazards outside the aircraft before launching/boarding rafts, and to also remove any sharp objects from your person prior to boarding.
The ability for an aircraft to stay afloat in varying degrees of weather is understood by HUET training providers, but so is the difficulty of escaping once it has turned over. It is because of this last point, and the varying fitness and abilities of passengers, that egress to a raft is the current SOP adopted by most providers of HUET.
The points you have made are much appreciated. My aim with the survey is to produce sufficient data to best fine-tune the one-to-two days we get people for training every two to four years.
Thanks again,
Treg