KARFA

Er ok. I think you need to work out how long it would take to get down from 38000ft before you state there isn't enough time.

Tafflyer

I agree with this interpretation. There really is no telling when or how quickly an emergency exit might be required.

cgtechuk

As someone who was a POS for a large number of years and now thankfully not, I had the experience of being moved from the Exit Row through being too big. Tactfully mind you with BA but not with Bangkok Airways but that is another story.

However what some people don't reliaze is that the Exit Row seats have the Tray Tables in the arms so are even narrower than a normal seat. And if you are big enough the tray table wont fit in front of you anyway. So unless you are tall and a person of size you don't gain anything by sitting in an exit row.

i was once told by an FA that the general rule of thumb is if you need a seatbelt extension you cant sit in the exit row and I think its pretty fair advice.

When I used be larger I used to trade off the less width for the extra leg room as I am tall.

Tafflyer

I have practiced an emergency descent from FL 350 in an A320 Sim and I'm telling you, while I was descending, nobody would have wanted to have been moving around the cabin. Besides, there may also be a sudden depressurization which would make moving around the cabin dangerous.

YorkieFlyer

hypothetical example might help? What if the cabin suffered a depressurisation?

KARFA

You wouldn't be moving around a cabin if doing an emergency decent due to depressurisation since you need to be wearing an oxygen mask. However, your aim is to get to 10000ft quickly and then level off or at least commence a normal rate decent, not keep the rapid decent until you get to the ground.

KARFA

See my post above. Once under 10,000ft you have plenty of time to secure the cabin.

YorkieFlyer

The over wing exit seats on the lgw BA A320 are normal seats with regular armrests and table on seat back in front

Jane42

I agree - I have read where someone with a cane, an underage person, etc. have been told they are not allowed to sit in the emergency exit seats at all period!!

As far as reserving seats with one in-between, you are making an assumption that they did this with the one purpose of nobody being seated between them and that they would enjoy the extra space. That is your assumption. My husband and I had done that a couple times because he likes the window and I have to sit in an aisle seat. And I know this is a BIG issue with some, but really, who wants the middle seat anyway?? My job as a paying customer is to reserve seats where I want to sit - not where it helps the airline seat people. (My husband and I have now found that we would rather have aisle seats next to each other - OUR choice)

I don't know if it is common for BA to do this, but I would hope not.

YorkieFlyer

ok so presumably you think it a good use of cabin crew to be moving passengers who require assistance in an emergency situation? Defies common sense.

KARFA

I think this is true of all BA A320s and not just the LGW based ones. They all have the normal tray table in the back of the seat directly in front. One thing you may notice is that there is a small stop which prevents the tray table release being knocked if there was an evacuation.

For aircraft with two consecutive rows of emergency exit seats I think the forward row will not have any recline.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

So where do you draw the line? No alcohol at any time for pax in emergency exits because they could be impaired if there was a sudden emergency? No cabin bags allowed out during the entire flight, by any pax, anywhere, because of a sudden emergency? No visits to the WC?

There are odds and probabilities. Take off and landing are where things have the greatest chance of going wrong. I think we could probably count on one hand the number of emergencies in flight which would be so severe as to not be able to prepare the cabin at some stage before landing?

KARFA

What I think is irrelevant. I was merely noting that in your example that the emergency decent part for a depressurisation is only down to 10,000ft so everyone can breath normally without a mask, and that there would be plenty of time to brief the CC and secure the cabin between reaching that altitude and eventually landing.

Perhaps if you are really concerned you should write to the CAA & BA?

KARFA

Indeed. Anyone able to name an example?

YorkieFlyer

exactly , neither of us like the middle seat, to be clear if it's empty then good if not so be it it's not a problem at all. The issue is whether or not a passenger who is not able bodied should be seated in an emergency exit seat for any part of a flight