A380 Evacuation Test on Sunday

[thomay]

According to spiegel.de (which is usually well informed), the test evacuation of the A380 will be held on Sunday: not sure where, though, the article is not clear about this.

http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,406679,00.html

Could not confirm this info with anything else on the internet, but if it is true, more information will appear all over in the days to come.

The serial number of the test aircraft is 007...

[Algy]

Should be interesting.... (http://shortlinks.co.uk/9v)

[Roadtrip]

If they wanted a realistic test under conditions where the airplane will be used a lot is a hadj simulation. Get 800 pilgrims with their pigs and chickens, shopping bags full of stuff, sterno stoves, as well as at least 100 80-year-old near-death Grandpa Muhammeds . . . then run the test. Somehow I don't think that would go as well as a bunch of fit gym goers and disciplined and pre-briefed Airbus employees.

[Rick Storm]

Very true Roadtrip, if non-associated volunteers can be found for drug testing and accident fire/rescue/marine scenarios I doubt (unvetted) Airbus would get the 'ticket' money talks I fear.

[vapilot2004]

Airbus, as I understand it, heavily lobbied both the EASA and the FAA to skip this test altogether, fearing injuries and the subsequent bad press that would inevitably come with them.

It would be an enormous accomplishment to get 800+ people safely evacuated in a real-life scenario. It's a good thing this is a controlled and sober exercize with mostly fit and focused volunteers.

Let us hope that no serious injuries occur.

I have in mind a particular Air France cabin crew that would be a great choice for the test team. ;)

[172driver]

Regulators will dump soft obstacles such as baggage into the aisles and elsewhere before the test.

I kinda like this one - what are they gonna do? Dump some obese pax in the aisles ?:}

[FougaMagister]

vapilot2004 - well said. The successful evacuation of the Air France A340-300 overrun in Toronto last August proved that these tests are important no matter what the cynics say; I remember reading that all PAX and crew evacuated the (full) aircraft within the required 90 seconds using only 3 out of 8 exits (1 exit was rejected by the Cabin Crew as unusable, but some PAX vacated through it anyway) - when the tests require HALF the available exits. In other words, the real emergency evacuation proved more successful than the simulation!

Also, the extras and Cabin Crew will not know beforehand which of the A380's exits will be unserviceable. That sounds realistic enough.

Cheers :cool:

[Roadtrip]

Ever gone down the slide from the upper deck of a 747? It sure looks like a LOOONNGGGG way down there. You're going to have a lot of people freeze in the doorway. Unless there's a Jumpmaster with a size 14 combat boot to "encourage" expeditiousness . . . . . I hope someone posts the video of the evac drill on the 380.

The obese ladies with the rayon stretch pants will burst into flames and start a smoke trail about a quarter of the way down the upper deck slide.

As far as injuries go, there's really no way to completely avoid those in an evac. Getting a few bumps and slide burns sure beats the alternative.

[CV880]

For the 747-400 evacuation test Boeing imported a "foreign" cabin crew who they considered better trained and more disciplined than the locals to ensure the test succeeded. Even with the imported talent I think zone E was evacuated with only about 3 seconds to spare.
It was done in a darkened hangar under emergency lighting and the crew did not know which doors would fail.