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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1261.PDF
700 FUGHT International, 30 April .'954 AIR CO E R C E EMERGENCY EXIT TESTS FURTHER experiments have been made in the USA to assess the emergency evacuation characteristics of fully loaded big jets. Hitherto the tests have been cirried out by airlines, notably Pan American, Delta and United, at the instigation and with the co- operation of the FAA. Now United Air Lines, which was the first to draw attention to the dangers of cramming too many people into big jets when it objected to PAA's thrift-class services to Honolulu last year, recently staged a series of emergency evacu- ations from a DC-8 parked in a hangar. The object was to find out how long it would take 174 passengers to get out in realistic crash circumstances. The iests were apparently realistic to the point of actually scaring those taking part, most of whom were United employees and members of their families including children. Three people were slightly injured in the first "accident" and a fourth in the second test. In the first test the crash occurred on take-off with a tape recording providing such sound effects as metal grinding into a concrete runway. Heavy mineral oil smoke was pumped into the cabin and in less than 20sec it was almost impossible to see where the emer- gency exits were located. It took the passengers almost 5min to get clear. The FAA has set 2min as a tentative minimum safety standard and United itself is aiming at 90sec. The second test involved only 160 passengers and there was no smoke. Evacuation took 2min and 20sec. In both tests four of the eight exits were locked. Asked what measures were being taken in Britain to assess the emergency evacuation characteristics of fully loaded aircraft, a Ministry of Aviation official said last week: "We are keeping closely in touch with the American authorities." INNSBRUCK AND MUNICH IN the April issue of The Log, the BALPA journal, a leading article considers the "pilot error" reactions to the recent Innsbruck acci- dent:— "Picking up the Sunday papers on the day after the British Eagle Britannia crash near Innsbruck was enough to give pilots a shiver up their spine. Quite apart from the abhorrent morbid interest which the press always has in tragedy, there seemed to be so much speculation in the reports that one's anger was aroused at the possi- bilities which were put forward at random by the different news- papers. "The first 'I'm in the clear' statement was reported to have been made by the Innsbruck airport authority, to the effect that the equipment at the airfield had been working correctly and the staff could in no way be blamed for the accident! This statement rang a bell. Have we not heard a similar one before? Did not the Munich airport authorities make a similar statement after the Manchester United accident? "The other similarity between the events which followed the Inns- bruck and Munich accidents is that in both cases the 'accident in- vestigation' team made a preliminary statement on the possible cause of the accident before the full facts were known. How can an inquiry conduct its investigation with true impartiality when it has already made a public pronouncement ruling out the possibility of there having been a technical fault in the aircraft ? At the time when that statement was made very little of the wreckage had been moved from the crash site and much of it had not been located at all. 'The objections we have to these types of preliminary statements are obvious. A similar statement after the Munich crash, which gave the inquiry's 'preliminary finding' that ice on the wings caused the accident, has been completely disproved by evidence which only came to light after exhaustive research some years later. Will the Germans change their official views ? "It does not seem they will. A question of pride might enter into an admission that they were wrong—and all because they committed themselves before the full facts were known. "The Austrian situation could be worse, for the preliminary state- ment by their chief investigator came only three days after the crash. The man will now have to stick to his guns or else face the possibility of losing his job. What possibility is there, in that con- text, of new evidence being considered by the investigators in an unbiased way? "It was gratifying to BALPA that the British Government pro- tested to Austria when news of the 'preliminary findings' came through. Pilots have been most concerned for a number of years about accident investigation procedures in foreign countries, where in some cases, for reasons of national prestige or to avoid damaging a tourist industry, ground services and facilities are quickly white- washed over and the blame attributed directly or by inference to the pilot. Unfortunately all too often the pilot is in no position to answer back; the real reason for the accident goes with him to the grave." , Malaysian Airways, who already operate a Comet 4 chartered from &OAC, are considering buying up to five of the corporation's Comet 4s
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