Originally Posted by
rylan
The big problem is that 90 seconds or whatever doesn't even have to be demonstrated by the airlines when they reconfigure aircraft, but just done via simulation or on paper. Anyone think about how the emergency evac time is effected by airlines cramming in more seats? Yeah, they didn't have to retest. Its a sure bet that if the FAA made airlines demonstrate evac time they wouldn't pass with the new high density configurations.
The evacuation is based on the max capacity that the aircraft is certified to, which for an MD-88 is 172 pax. Delta's MD-88 only hold 149, to get an MD-88 to max pax you need to be one class with 29" pitch. JAL's knee busting MD-81's only held 163 in all econ configuration.