How to Evacuate an Airplane

"A hundred years ago, it could take you the better part of a year to get from New York to California; whereas today, because of equipment problems at O’Hare, you can't get there at all."
~ Dave Barry (Only Travel Guide you'll ever need)

Earlier this week, a United Airlines flight at Dulles International in Washington, DC had to be evacuated when passengers saw smoke. Everyone quickly left the plane via the the inflatable slides including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A reporter on board wrote, "Hearing of possible broken bones, from the slide landing, but no other serious injuries."

Slides were fun when we were kids but an airplane slide is serious and can be dangerous. A government study of airline evacuation drills in the 1970s and 1980s found that almost 5 percent of the participants get hurt. The slides are designed to handle 70 passengers a minute so that means you have less than one second to go out the door. So here's some advice:

1. Get out fast – DO NOT grab your luggage.
2. JUMP onto the slide. Don’t hesitate at the doorway or try to sit down. JUMP.
3. Keep your arms crossed over your chest as you go down the slide on your back. This will help prevent skin burns as you slide.
4. Get out of the way! When you reach the bottom of the slide – MOVE quickly. Another person is just one second behind you and will crash into you if you don’t move quickly off the slide.

Bottom Line

Keep in mind two things:
1. Move quickly - jump on, get off fast.
2. This is not a slow ride down on your butt. It's a fast ride down on your back.

The second leading cause of injury is broken ankles and leg bones at the bottom of the slide. Be prepared to hit the ground by having both feet ready and your legs tensed but not locked and rigid. Be a stiff spring and let your knees bend and absorb the force with your leg muscles as you resist the impact. Picture how your legs work when you land from a jump or fall. The slide is a controlled fall and you'll land with nearly as much force as if you had jumped out of the plane without a slide.

To the degree that the slide does slow your fall and lessen the impact, that slowing is caused by friction and "slide burns" from friction are the leading injury from evacuations. Always wear long pants when you fly. Never shorts or a short skirt.

Death by Crocodile

"See you later, alligator. After a while, crocodile."
- Bill Haley

There are many odd ways to die. Being killed by a crocodile is unusual. Dieing in a plane crash is actually quite rare. (You are over 2000 times more likely to die in a car crash). Now combine the two, killed by a crocodile on an airplane, and you have a type of death that may be unique.

In August a small plane crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo killing 21 people aboard. It was obvious that the crash was caused by a loss of balance in the small aircraft while landing. Why unbalanced? The passengers where stampeding into the cockpit. Why the stampede? That was not so obvious until the lone survivor explained what happened.

A crocodile had escaped from a duffel bag that a passenger was smuggling it in. The terrified passengers and crew were trying to get away from the crocodile. (I wonder how big it was? I suppose even small crocs have big teeth.)  Ironically the croc survived the crash (but was killed afterwards.)

Bottom Line

Sometimes our response to a threat is more dangerous than the threat itself. Long ago I was driving the family car with my mother on board when a bee flew in the window. I started to panic and was watching the bee. My mother admonished me to keep my eyes on the road. A car crash would be far worse than a bee sting.

Turbulence

Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway. - Mary Kay Ash

Do you hate the seat belt sign on airplanes? Why do they force passengers to stay in their seats? Well a recent United Flight from DC to LA demonstrates why.

A plane with 255 passengers hit severe turbulence and 4 crew and 21 persons were seriously hurt. The plane was diverted to Denver where a medical triage center was set up at the airport and the injured sent to Denver hospitals. Injuries included bruises, sprains, whiplash and strains.

"It was a bit of a blur. People were screaming and yelling," recalled one passenger on board the flight. She also described watching as the woman in the seat next to hear "slammed into the side of the cabin, leaving a crack above the window, and a girl across the aisle flew into the air and hit the ceiling."

Bottom Line

When flying, keep your seat belt on. Turbulence can occur at any time.

Travel Insurance vs Volcano

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
... Don't know when I'll be back again.
- lyrics from "Leaving On A Jet Plane"

If you're worried about flying to Europe right now and are thinking about buying travelers insurance, "just in case" the flight is cancelled because of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano - forget about it. The Wall Street Journal reports that the volcano is excluded from all policies purchased on or after April 13.

"It’s called the theory of the burning house. If your house is ablaze, you can’t go out and quickly buy homeowners coverage. In travel, as soon as a storm or event is known, you can buy all the insurance you want but it won’t cover those “known’’ events. Once a hurricane is named, most policies won’t cover it
if the insurance was sold after the moment the storm was identified." - WSJ

The WSJ points out that even if purchased before April 13, travel insurance may be of limited use. When airlines refund tickets for canceled trips, there’s no claim with insurers. Many policies have limits on daily expenses if you are stranded away from home. If you can’t get to a hotel that you prepaid, insurance may not kick in because the hotel isn’t “uninhabitable.’’ It's your fault for not finding another way to get to it.

Travel insurance rarely covers your cancelling due to fear of unsafe travel or unsafe conditions—for example fear of terrorism is covered only if the attack happens in your destination city. Everywhere else is safe to fly. Same with hurricanes – your resort may have to be declared uninhabitable before your insurance would cover you. It's not enough that your resort was hit hard, barely functioning, and won't be the dream vacation you paid for.

Bottom Line

Read insurance policies carefully before buying. What you have in mind may require a more-expensive “cancel for any reason’’ policy that will cover pre-existing medical conditions, family emergencies, etc. Check the daily limits for reimbursing hotels, lost luggage and other expenses.

Eyjafjallajökull

Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone home?
-Pink Floyd, "Comfortably Numb" lyrics

At work Monday morning I noticed two co-workers were missing. They had flown to Europe last week for a computer conference. It took a moment to put two-and-two together to realize, oh the volcano. They can not come home with airspace over France and England still closed.

Yesterday Astronomy Picture of the Day featured this photo of the volcano.

BusinessInsider.com had this photo of the ash cloud and an informative article on the volcano's impact.

The Map Room blog has a video graphic showing the spread of the ash cloud. Instead of a nice neat streamer it looks like the plume was caught in a washing machine as swirled around making a mess of everything.

Bottom Line

Why did this volcanic eruption in Iceland create so much ash? On April 14 Eyjafjallajökull opened up a vent under a small glacier. The eruption melted a large amount of glacial ice which poured onto the fresh lava fragmenting it into gritty glass particles that were carried up with the rising steam and ash.

Best Seat on the Plane

From http://xkcd.com/726/

Volcanic Ash

"We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility."
-Rabindranath Tagore quotes (Indian Nobel Laureate)

Tens of thousands of air travelers around the world are stuck today as a mammoth cloud of ash from the Eyjafjallajökull (EYE-ja-fyatla-jo-kittle) volcano in Iceland shut down all air traffic over Britain, Ireland and the Nordic countries on April 15. The U.K. banned all non-emergency flights until at least 7 a.m. Friday; most affected is London's Heathrow International with over 1200 flights and 180,000 travelers daily. While the majority of flights may be back in the air by the beginning of next week, it will be many more days before the airlines have got their schedules back on track. Some planes are stranded thousands of miles from home.

In addition to causing visibility problems, volcanic ash can wreak havoc with a jet's systems, clogging up engines, blocking sensors and more. Unfortunately ash does not show up well on airplane radar systems so difficult to detect and avoid. Popular Mechanics provides an example from history:

On Dec. 15, 1989, KLM flight 867 intercepted an ash cloud that Redoubt [a volcano in Alaska] had exhaled just 90 minutes earlier. Within 60 seconds, a maelstrom of microscopic volcanic glass shards shut down all four of the 747's engines. With 245 passengers on board, the plane plummeted 13,000 ft before the pilots managed to restart engines and steer the crippled craft to an emergency landing in Anchorage [100 miles away].

After this event the Federal Aviation Administration created the Alaska Volcano Observatory system to monitor 162 active volcanoes in the northern Pacific and give warning to pilots.

There is one bit of good news regarding the eruption. According to the British Health Protection Agency, the effect of ash falling on people in Europe is minor. (I suspect the impact is worse in Iceland.) People may experience itchy or irritated eyes, a runny nose, sore throat, or dry cough, or they may notice the smell of sulphur or see a dusty haze. Those with respiratory conditions like bronchitis, emphysema and asthma may notice the effects more than others and should keep adequate medications on hand.

Bottom Line

There are some things man can not control. Who would have thought in this day and age that your European vacation could be stopped short by a volcano in Iceland?

Because of "Acts of God" you always want to travel with enough cash, clothes, medicine, etc. to last an extra day or two in case you are stranded.

Terror over Detroit

“No man dies for what he knows to be true. Men die for what they want to be true, for what some terror in their hearts tells them is not true.” - Oscar Wilde

On December 25, a terrorist tried to blow up an airplane as it was landing at Detroit, Michigan. I encourage you to read the first hand account, Over Detroit Skies, by passenger Roey Rosenblith. He's very honest about the experience and his reaction to what happened. For instance he talks about the urge to flee but having nowhere to go when aboard a plane.

Another important thing to learn from this story is that the "incident" is just the beginning of a long process of response and recovery. Passengers were not allowed to leave the plane or even to leave their seats after landing. When they finally deplaned, they were escorted to private briefings with 250 police/custom agents/security personnel. Cell phone calls were not allowed to waiting family members. The processing took hours and connecting flights were missed. At least they got vouchers for a meal and a hotel room.

Bottom Line

In any disaster, the hurricane, tornado, fire, etc is just the beginning. There are survival needs and emotional shock immediately afterwards. This is followed by a long and slow recovery with lots of paperwork, bureaucracy, and delays. It is frequently weeks or months for life to return to normal.

Luggage Thieves

“Did you ever notice that the first piece of luggage on the carousel never belongs to anyone? -Erma Bombeck

Here’s a travel warning from the NY Daily News: Sting nabs sticky-fingered JFK airport workers going through Luggage.

"When air travelers check their luggage with an airline, there is an implicit trust that their bags and their contents will meet them at their destination," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

[…But] an officer with the Transportation Security Administration [TSA], was videotaped July 7 pilfering through the Miami-bound suitcase in an airport screening room while a baggage handler looked on.

He stole a laptop and cell phone from the decoy luggage as it moved through Kennedy Airport.

Bottom Line

Never pack valuables in a suitcase. Keep them with your carry-on and watch them as they pass through security.

How to Escape Down an Airplane Slide

“We need only travel enough to give our intellects an airing.” - Henry David Thoreau

Emergency airplane evacuations happen more often than most people think; about once every 11 days in the U.S. Since most evacuation injuries occur on the inflatable slide,
here is some more advice Time magazine on How to Escape Down an Airplane Slide.

1. Always count the rows to the nearest exit when you sit down on the plane. The cabin may be filled with thick smoke when you need to exit.
2. Look for a 2nd exit off the plane when you get on. It is not unusual for doors to jam shut or for the slide to fail to deploy.
3. Get out fast – DO NOT grab your luggage.
4. JUMP onto the slide. Don’t hesitate at the doorway or try to sit down. Slides are designed to handle 70 passengers a minute so that means you have less than one second to go out the door. JUMP.
5. Keep your heels up and your arms crossed over your chest as you go down the slide on your back. This will help prevent skin burns as you slide.
6. Get out of the way! When you reach the bottom of the slide – MOVE. Another person is just one second behind you and will crash into you if you don’t move quickly off the slide.

Bottom Line
Speed is everything during plane evacuations. Lose the luggage and save your life. Don’t slow or stop the flow of people getting off.

Airplane Evacuations

“Evacuating a plane can be quite perilous—whether you're a real passenger or a volunteer in a certification test. A government study of airline evacuation drills in the 1970s and 1980s found that almost 5 percent of the participants get hurt.“ – Slate

Who would have thought that 1 out of 20 passengers could be injured just getting off an airplane during an emergency evacuation? But if you think about, getting off a crowded airplane is never easy even during normal days. Now add darkness, smoke, panicking people, luggage everywhere, inflated life vests, and you have a recipe for chaos.

You also may not have much time. The FAA requires that the airplane's maximum capacity of passengers and crewmembers can evacuate the plane in less than 90 seconds—the time it takes a fire to engulf a standard cabin.

Can you guess the main cause of injury during plane evacuations?

It is the inflatable slide that can be up to 26 feet off the ground. The most common injury is “slide burn” when bare skin is scraped raw going down the slide. The next danger is “hitting” the ground when the “slow down” strips fail at the base of the slide. People have broken ankles and legs from reaching the ground too fast. The worst injury occurred when a volunteer tester fell off the top of the slide and hit the pavement head first.

All the above points are occurred when a Paris flight to Toronto made a hard emergency landing, caught fire and managed to evacuate everyone in less than two minutes, 75% got off within 52 seconds

Bags were “flying down” from the overhead bins, and the plane was coming apart…. “Stewardesses started pushing everyone out,”

People near the fire at the rear of the plane panicked.

“People were tripping over each other, climbing over the seats to get to the
exit”

At a front door there was no chute to slide down and the drop was about 12 feet. A second door had a damaged chute but it worked.

“I jumped and fell onto some people,” a passenger said, “Some people broke their
arms or legs.”

Bottom Line

Stay calm and be careful when evacuating a plane and you should be OK.

“There is this myth out there that says if you’re involved in a catastrophic aircraft accident the odds [of survival] are extremely low. That’s inaccurate. The odds are extremely high,” said Mark Rosenker, the acting chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

See also this YouTube of 777 evacuation test

PS - this post is appearing a day early. I accidently entered 08 for the year and it is not so easy to unpublish an article once published.