Getting Out

According to a new study of passenger evacuation through Type III overwing exits, the dominant factor is passenger waist size. Although exit passage configuration and the motivation of passengers to get out are important variables, gender, age and waist size are even more important determinants of evacuation time. In other words, the larger the person's waist, the more time is needed to negotiate the hatch. One has the image of a cork in a bottle. The study concluded, "The physical attributes of subjects produce large differences in emergency evacuation performance, whereas airplane configuration has minimal effects on emergency egress." This comes from "Access-To-Egress III: Repeated Measurement of Factors That Control the Emergency Evacuation of Passengers Through the Transport Airplane Type-III Overwing Exit," Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, report number DOT/FAA/AM-04/2.