Why?

People can do pretty impressive things when adrenaline kicks in. Or if you were next to her in the exit row, you could push her out of the way and do it yourself.

I think people worry too much about this. If the door needs to be opened, it will get opened.

Neil

On most if not all the international flights I've been on, the FAs will speak the language spoken in the departing/arriving country and definitely enough English to communicate clearly enough. Plus I'd be pretty sure they get the script in all the relevant languages they need.

Especially departing on a non-US carrier of a country where English is not the primary language, what language does the FA ask the passengers in if they can move the exit door? Maybe the FA for AF starts off with French, for instance, but when the passenger doesn't respond, it could be due to unwillingness or lack of language comprehension. Would there be a bias for the foreign country's language, in this case French, in deciding who can sit in the exit row?

Ex, On Air Canada TATL, I noticed the FAs with the drink/snack trolley asked all the passengers what kind of drink they wanted, in English. I asked one of the FAs how do they know everyone speaks English? Why not ask in French, or English and French, or with the other 2 languages announcements were made in?

I asked if they assess passenger language comprehension covertly, from the friendly greeting at the cabin door when boarding. American carrier FAs usually smile and nod, but AC FAs seem to try to have a short conversation in English with each passenger: "Hello sir. How are you?"

The FA said no, it's just a friendly greeting, and was surprised American carriers don't do that. Regarding the meal service, she said it's company policy is to assume the passenger knows English, and if that's not the case, bring over the FA who speaks their language.

History might have proved you wrong

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudia_Flight_163

If you want to read tragedy, read the transcripts. Plane came in on fire, passengers rioting on board, yet nobody activated the emergency exits when they were back on the ground, and everyone on board perished.

"It took 23 minutes from the engine shutdown until the fuselage was accessed. Saudi reports stated that the crew could not get the plug-type doors to open in time.[7] This later proved false as all doors had functional emergency opening devices. It is assumed that most passengers and flight attendants had become incapacitated during the landing roll or would not have attempted to open a door on a moving aircraft. It is known that the aircraft remained pressurized during the landing roll as the cabin pressurization system was on standby and the aircraft was found with both pressurization doors almost completely closed. These pressurization doors should have opened completely on touchdown to depressurize the aircraft. The crew were found still in their flight station seats. The source of the fire in the C3 is unknown."

Or would not have been *able* to until the engines were shut down, depending on the pressurisation system, AIUI.

Neil

I was of the understanding that if an aircraft was pressurised it would be very hard, if not impossible, to open plug type doors (which is why it is impossible to open a door in normal cruising flight). I guess it depends on *how* pressurised the aircraft was on landing?

It would be nice if they could put a mock-up of the exit door in the terminal so you could test your self.
Its such a rare event that I guess they don't think its worth the trouble.

I used to practice doing that during recurrent training. The really hard part is putting the escape hatch back in its place!
BW

It'd probably cause issues for those with fear of flying.

I wouldn't mind a go (I was interested in that BA forum practice day a while ago, I just couldn't do the date) but I'm certain that if I need to get out, I will find a way so long as I am not completely incapacitated.

Neil

I do not think I want you in my exit row.

As I said... no-one took the decision to try and get the doors open any earlier - they waited on instructions from the flight deck which never came (the flight deck, when asked for instructions as to whether they should evacuate first said yes, then said no, so the cabin crew were not briefed for an evacuation. Yet, clearly, the plane needed to be evacuated.

My point stands - if the door needs to be opened, it is unwise to assume that it will always be opened. On the Airtours incident, pax opened the door on their own initiative (the instruction to evacuate was not heard by the people in the exit row), and IIRC 30 people survived who otherwise would not have got out that door. On the Saudia flight, no-one opened the doors - they all died. As such, people in the exit rows have to be willing to make that determination without assistance from cabin crew - when do I open the doors.. And if they aren't willing to take that on, they have no business being in the exit rows.

I had an exit row seat and fairly full flight from LAX to SAL. I was eyeing the empty seats ahead of me. My conversation with the flight attendant:

FA: Are you comfortable with sitting in the exit row?
ME: I'd be more comfortable sitting in that row of 3 empty seats a few aisles ahead.

Then she let me move and got a volunteer to replace my seat. I'd rather stretch out over 3 seats than have leg room. For some reason, they were restricting other passengers from moving to empty seats towards the front (which were still just economy seats).

Why's that? I'm an able bodied (and quite strong, as I'm a rock climber) adult male in my mid 30s. Won't be an issue opening the door unless I'm dead or seriously injured, in which case feel free to climb over and do it yourself.

FWIW, "open it" is not necessarily possible (if the aircraft is pressurised) nor necessarily sensible (engines running). I'm sure I can make that judgement. And I reckon I could influence others as well - even if I'm not by the door, I reckon an assertive shout of EVACUATE EVACUATE EVACUATE would get things moving.

So why worry so much?

Neil

What we also don't know is if the wind blowing into a moving aircraft would have caused a flashover if the doors were opened, but not if they waited until it stopped.

It is very hard to make these judgements without knowing what the passengers were thinking, and as they all died we can't ask them.

Neil

I think dssxxxx was responding to the OP, not you?

And I agree with them. If you have the slightest doubt, or if you are in the mind-frame that your first line of thinking is 'you don't know unless you've tried it' then you probably shouldn't be sitting in the exit.

Rather than thinking 'i don't know' you should be doing a quick check-list in your mind 'check for fire, remove cover, pull handle, throw out door'.

As for 'evacuate evacuate' - it may be that you never hear such an instruction, for a variety of reasons. you need to be ready to act even in the absence of such an instruction.

That's the problem with not quoting, I suppose.

How would I have any way of knowing for certain without trying? If that's so much of an issue, each airport should have one of each type and you should have to go and get your boarding card stamped to say you've tried it. The idea is not completely silly - theme parks often have an example seat outside rides for you to try to be sure, and I do tend to use these to check because I'm borderline on height/weight for a lot of rides, so they save queueing up for a ride I can't get on.

They don't do this at airports, though...

I am strongly of the view that I can open one without problems - I can't see any rational reason why I wouldn't be able to. But how can I, you or anyone else say for 100% certain if they haven't tried? About anything at all, let alone opening an aircraft exit door?

If I was saying "I might panic and freeze" that would be different, but I'm not saying that (though it is true that few people know exactly how they will react under extreme pressure unless they've been in a situation involving fear and a high risk of death, which most people fortunately haven't). FWIW I have been in such a situation (in the mountains), and I'm pretty sure my reaction based on that experience is that I'll be out before you even have chance to get to my row.

But let's say there's a tree outside my window (there is, as well). I might believe I can climb it by looking. How can I be 100% sure unless I try?

See what I mean?

The two are unconnected. You can plan to open the door without ever having done so!

I was figuring that in the absence of that coming from the cabin crew I might well issue it myself. You tend to find that if you issue complete strangers in a state of confusion/fear[1] a very assertive and clear instruction, they will do it first and complain about you having done it later (or not, I suspect, if your doing so got them out of a burning aircraft). Psychology is a strange thing.

[1] I'm a volunteer climbing instructor so have a bit of experience of that.

Neil

i really don't mean this as a personal attack on you - but you know when you're at a company briefing and there is always one person that asks a really dumb question? And everybody just rolls their eyes because the question is just so stupid but the person (and it usually is the same person) likes to ask because they like the sound of their own voice?

It's kind of like how your thinking is coming over. 'There's always gotta be one' type thing. When the FA asks the question it's not a question that is to be interpreted to the n-th literal degree. And if you are gonna speak out with a question of 'how do i know?' then it's kind of a roll-eyes situation and if the FA needs to make an instant judgement about whether the person is suitable for the exit they'd probably just move the person. They don't have time to enter in to a debate about hypotheticals.

Again - this is not an attack on you - just explaining how, to me at least, the situation sounds.