Airbus A380 Evacuation Test set for March 26

LX-LGX · Post by **LX-LGX** » 26 Mar 2006, 22:00

Seems Airbus aborted the evacution because of malfunction of one of the glidings.

Eurapart · Post by **Eurapart** » 26 Mar 2006, 22:22

The article I posted a link for states that the evacuation went ahead.

They are analysing the infra red film before they can determine if the procedure was a success.

Ovostar · Post by **Ovostar** » 26 Mar 2006, 23:54

with 31 injuries, 1 older man had a broken leg, can they call it a success ?

LX-LGX · Post by **LX-LGX** » 27 Mar 2006, 00:53

What does "successsfull" means?

Successfull: the A380 was a full-Y, thus with 853 pax on board. Only half of the doors were used, and they all left the plane within the 90 seconds limit.

Not successfull: the guy with the broken staff (apparently a LH crew member) broke his leg because there was not enough pressure (air) in the gliding he was using.

- - -

During evacuation of the A340-300 AF358 CDG-YYZ at Toronto (2 Aug 2005), 43 people of the 209 onboard (297+12) were injured.

Ovostar · Post by **Ovostar** » 27 Mar 2006, 01:08

of course, if it was a real crash, 31 injuries are an excellent result! but aren't the evacuation test supposed to be better ? where they injured people for the a340 evacuation tests ?

bits44 · Post by **bits44** » 27 Mar 2006, 03:29

It seems there are now many conflicting reports regarding this test, in fact two heads of Airbus have issued conflicting statements, Gustav says it went well, Champion says it was terminated?

Anybody have the real story?

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/26/ ... airbus.php

teach · Post by **teach** » 27 Mar 2006, 16:07

in fact two heads of Airbus have issued conflicting statements, Gustav says it went well, Champion says it was terminated?

I'm willing to bet pretty good money Champion never said that, but that a dumb-ass journalist seriously got his facts jumbled up: There's only one source that suggests a failure (the Reuters one) while ALL others report a complete success. My guess is he heard about the broken leg and the other minor injuties, and derived from that that the test must have been cancelled.

Anybody have the real story?

Here it is, straight from Airbus:

http://www.airbus.com/en/presscentre/pr ... _test.html

with 31 injuries, 1 older man had a broken leg, can they call it a success ?

Very much so. 32 injuries, mostly light injuries, and one broken leg is, in fact, excellent.

This Bloomberg article states that the volunteers were young and fit, not elderly.

No it doesn't. It doesn't say a thing about their age.

Zorba · Post by **Zorba** » 27 Mar 2006, 16:37

Airbus says:

Airbus successfully completed the passenger evacuation trial on development A380 MSN7, paving the way for the Authorities to certify the aircraft in time for delivery by the end of 2006. During the trial, all of the 873 participants were able to leave the aircraft and reach ground within the 90 seconds prescribed, with half of the 16 doors in operations. The trial was performed under the supervision of the European Aviation and Safety Agency EASA and a representation of the American FAA.

The Airworthiness Authorities will now thoroughly review the material available, analyse the passenger flow on the two decks, and the evacuation itself.

"There was one passenger suffering a broken leg and few minor injuries. We will support them in every way we can," said Airbus COO and Head of A380 programme Charles Champion. "Although the final number as confirmed by the Authority will only be known in a few days, we are very happy with this result. It clears the way for the transportation of passengers as defined by our initial customers who all have selected very comfortable three class layouts. And even in a higher density two class layout, the A380 cabin will continue to set new standards of comfort."

The evacuation trial was the most stringent ever performed and the first ever on a passenger aircraft with two decks. The aircraft was fitted with a very high density cabin layout, featuring 853 seats which were all occupied. In addition there were two cockpit crew members and 18 cabin crews from Lufthansa on board to manage the evacuation in a representative way. The trial was performed in darkness, yet filmed by infrared cameras. The doors and slides that were operative were not known before the trial.

The "passengers" having suffered injuries when arriving on the ground were immediately taken care of by the medical emergency and first aid service available on the site. Airbus will of course provide all the support required to the injured person who were covered by a special insurance.

The A380 is designed to carry an average of 555 passengers in three classes over distances up to 8,000 nm/ 15,000 km. To-date, 159 A380s have been ordered by 16 customers, with the first due to be delivered to first operator Singapore Airlines before the end of the year.

Airbus is an EADS joint company with BAE System

earthman · Post by **earthman** » 28 Mar 2006, 12:46

Five minutes of fame, "I'm the guy that broke his leg during the A380 evac test."

bits44 · Post by **bits44** » 28 Mar 2006, 15:05

Talk about bad luck! I hope they at least gave you some tickets for a flight somewhere on the beast!

KT

earthman · Post by **earthman** » 28 Mar 2006, 15:15

They should have given him an A346, nobody wants them anyway.

chornedsnorkack · Post by **chornedsnorkack** » 28 Mar 2006, 15:17

bits44 wrote:Talk about bad luck! I hope they at least gave you some tickets for a flight somewhere on the beast!

KT

Would you like to sit next to a man with an immobilized leg in a no-frills A380 economy class?

Wasn´t the plane to start the Customer Perception flights on 29th, tomorrow? Let´s hope they get some lavatories in working order by then...

Ovostar · Post by **Ovostar** » 28 Mar 2006, 15:42

earthman wrote:They should have given him an A346, nobody wants them anyway.

i want a an A346, it's ony of my favourite airliner!!!

earthman · Post by **earthman** » 28 Mar 2006, 16:20

chornedsnorkack wrote: Wasn´t the plane to start the Customer Perception flights on 29th, tomorrow? Let´s hope they get some lavatories in working order by then...

Where do I sign up??

gwillie · Post by **gwillie** » 19 Jul 2006, 23:15

Airbus A380 evacuation trial infra-red sequence released into public domain

http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/20 ... ublic.html

fokker_f27 · Post by **fokker_f27** » 20 Jul 2006, 10:43

gwillie wrote:Airbus A380 evacuation trial infra-red sequence released into public domain

http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/20 ... ublic.html

Great! Thanks for sharing. Must be quite a fun experience to go down one of the upper deck slides.

Stepha380 · Post by **Stepha380** » 20 Jul 2006, 11:53

Eurapart wrote:This Bloomberg articlestates that the volunteers were young and fit, not elderly.

People were a representative sample of the population following the rules of FAA and EASA. Airbus found them in sports clubs.

earthman wrote:I wonder how many of those upper-deck-reaching catering trucks will fall over due to a slight breeze.

In case of wind, there are lifts inside from middle deck to top-deck, but inevitably it takes more time.

chornedsnorkack wrote:Would you like to sit next to a man with an immobilized leg in a no-frills A380 economy class?

Let´s hope they get some lavatories in working order by then...

Even disabled people on wheelchair have the right to travel, I think FA's take special care of them during emergencies. I hope nobody was locked in the lavatories