Originally Posted by
martindo
Although a westerner might be more savvy if an emergency occurs, I suspect that even someone like me who is fluent in Bahasa Indonesia would have difficulty communicating in such a situation. Therefore, I think it's a bad policy to assign these seats to expatriates on a default basis.
There is an extensive discussion in another forum on FT about the 'required language' for sitting at an exit row. Air France, for example, requires passengers to speak french. Personally I would think in a true emergency, actions speak much louder than words. It would be instinctive to exit the aircraft. Your job, sitting by the exit, would be to assist people out of the plane.
Originally Posted by
martindo
I took a flight on Thursday where a 4-year-old was seated in the emergency exit row along with his mother (ethnic Indonesian but probably a Dutch citizen) and aunt (ethnic European, probably Dutch). It took about 5 minutes for a stewardess to swap all three of them into another row.
This is, of course, absolutely correct procedure. In the event of an emergency the instinct of the mother would usually be to look after her children. This could distract or delay her ability to open the exit and assist others.
Originally Posted by
martindo
I began wondering how water landings are tested. I assume the safety procedures are approved by testing of components: does the raft float with necessary weight capacity? does it pop open properly when the door is opened? But is a total field test ever done, other than when a water landing actually occurs? Has anyone in this forum experienced a water landing?
All the rafts and slides, as pointed out by another poster, are extensively tested. During cabin crew training simulated evactuations are conducted in water for both slides and life rafts.
Aircraft are also tested to determine if exits are useable during different types of emergency. For example, the 747-400 has long range capacity and has additional fuel tanks built into its tail for this purpose. If these tanks are being used for a long flight, the rear of the aircraft is too heavy during take-off for the rear door to remain above the water-line in the event of a ditching. Crew instructions are to guide passengers to door that are more forward.
Originally Posted by
martindo
The picture on the safety card for the aircraft I was on (Boeing 737-ER) shows everybody HOLDING the flotation raft rather than sitting on it. This leads me to surmise that the raft might sink if a lot of adults sat on it.
Large widebody aircraft have slides which double as liferafts. This makes it very simple in the event of a water evacuation as passengers don't have to jump off a slide and then try to climb into a raft.
It is also more likely that these large aircraft will be flying long overwater routes!
Smaller aircraft (such as the A320 family, MD80s, some 757s), especially those that are not regularly scheduled to fly long distances overwater, do not have dual slides/rafts. Rafts, if carried, will be in the ceiling above the aisle at both the front and back of the aircraft. In the event of a ditching, the crew will ask all passengers to stay in their seats while the life raft(s) is removed, placed outside the aircraft and then inflated. (I can't really see everyone being this orderly!) I am wondering whether in some cases the separate raft may not be carried at all, but rather the slide itself is inflated and detached. In this case people would have to hang off the side - the slide is too small to carry everybody (but then again help would not be far away).
Some smaller aircraft (such as the A320) are delivered to customers with long range overwater flights in mind. These aircraft can be equipped with dual slide/rafts from the outset.
Originally Posted by
martindo
Has any airline (especially outside the US and other western countries) ever tested the supposedly "universally non-verbal" picture instructions on the safety card to determine whether the instructions are followed correctly in a wide variety of cultures?
dont know!
Regards
lme ff