Report on 2019 Laudamotion evac at STN
Paxing All Over The World
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Report on 2019 Laudamotion evac at STN
Emergency evacuation at Stansted airport slowed by passengers taking cabin baggage
The Independent
[my emphasis] Gosh, like some of us have been saying for years!
Passengers who insisted on taking their cabin baggage during an emergency evacuation at Stansted airport hindered the escape, an official accident investigation has concluded.
A Laudamotion flight to Vienna was accelerating along the runway when the left engine suffered a contained failure. During the subsequent evacuation, 10 passengers were hurt. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has urged “research to determine how to prevent passengers from obstructing aircraft evacuations by retrieving carry-on baggage”. The report recommends that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (Easa) build in “a more realistic simulation of passenger behaviour in regard to carry-on baggage in the test criteria and procedures for the emergency demonstration”.
A Laudamotion flight to Vienna was accelerating along the runway when the left engine suffered a contained failure. During the subsequent evacuation, 10 passengers were hurt. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has urged “research to determine how to prevent passengers from obstructing aircraft evacuations by retrieving carry-on baggage”. The report recommends that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (Easa) build in “a more realistic simulation of passenger behaviour in regard to carry-on baggage in the test criteria and procedures for the emergency demonstration”.
[my emphasis] Gosh, like some of us have been saying for years!
On the evening of 1 March 2019, a Laudamotion Airbus A320 with 169 passengers and seven crew, was departing from Stansted airport in Essex to Vienna, the airline’s base.
As the jet began its take-off roll, the pilots heard a loud bang, which turned out to be a contained failure of the left engine.
They stopped the aircraft on the runway as the fire service attended. When it became clear there was no fire danger, the pilots prepared to taxi the aircraft off the runway. But due to a mix-up, the senior member of cabin crew ordered an emergency evacuation.
The report says evacuation was “not necessary in the circumstances” but was “probably the result of a combination of factors that heightened her emotional response to the event and affected her decision making”. The evacuation command was potentially dangerous, the report says: “As a result of the flight crew not being consulted before the evacuation was commenced, the right engine remained running for the first few minutes of the evacuation.
“This led to an increased risk of serious injury to those passengers that evacuated on the right side of the aircraft. Indeed, several passengers sustained minor injuries having been blown over by the exhaust. “Passengers crossing behind the engine exhaust could have been exposed to ‘wind’ speeds of 65 mph or greater, even with the engines running at idle.”
As the jet began its take-off roll, the pilots heard a loud bang, which turned out to be a contained failure of the left engine.
They stopped the aircraft on the runway as the fire service attended. When it became clear there was no fire danger, the pilots prepared to taxi the aircraft off the runway. But due to a mix-up, the senior member of cabin crew ordered an emergency evacuation.
The report says evacuation was “not necessary in the circumstances” but was “probably the result of a combination of factors that heightened her emotional response to the event and affected her decision making”. The evacuation command was potentially dangerous, the report says: “As a result of the flight crew not being consulted before the evacuation was commenced, the right engine remained running for the first few minutes of the evacuation.
“This led to an increased risk of serious injury to those passengers that evacuated on the right side of the aircraft. Indeed, several passengers sustained minor injuries having been blown over by the exhaust. “Passengers crossing behind the engine exhaust could have been exposed to ‘wind’ speeds of 65 mph or greater, even with the engines running at idle.”
Until airlines started charging extra for hold-baggage the only passengers generally having big cabin bags were those overnight business traveller (who were probably far more aviation savvy anyway). Now everyone tries to get a week's holiday clothing in the overhead locker and those bewildered annual holidaymakers are far more likely to be clogging up emergency evacuations. For all sort of reasons we should really be encouraging baggage to be put in the hold and genuine handbags and essentials to be in the cabin.
Paxing All Over The World
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Indeed DD. I think the first big change was the Hub and Spoke era where pax found that their bags did not make the intersection, so started carrying more in the cabin. This was the era of the enormous shoulder carried 'suit bags'. Then came the era of LCC and the desire to turn the aircraft faster than ever and made the cargo hold a no-go zone. Money is always the driver and pax found the lower fares what they wanted.
I have long thought the standard evac tests are pointless box-ticking. I am fortunate that in 54 years of paxing, I have never had an emergency evac but I try and book seats closest to a door.
I have long thought the standard evac tests are pointless box-ticking. I am fortunate that in 54 years of paxing, I have never had an emergency evac but I try and book seats closest to a door.
A much faster way of reuniting passengers with checked baggage would help - I have in the past waited longer than the duration of the flight for the cases to arrive on the conveyor, also if there is an incident, some sort of assurance that the hand luggage would be offloaded promptly and returned to passengers would help, in a similar vein. The thought that the plane may be impounded for days or weeks, along with all the hand luggage whilst investigations are carried out is no doubt a source of anguish to many passengers
A much faster way of reuniting passengers with checked baggage would help - I have in the past waited longer than the duration of the flight for the cases to arrive on the conveyor, also if there is an incident, some sort of assurance that the hand luggage would be offloaded promptly and returned to passengers would help, in a similar vein. The thought that the plane may be impounded for days or weeks, along with all the hand luggage whilst investigations are carried out is no doubt a source of anguish to many passengers
