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How Japan Airlines crew led 367 passengers to safety from a burning plane

reuters.com

21–30 of 65 posts

Re: How Japan Airlines crew led 367 passengers to safety from a burning plane

#21
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterexample https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549?wprov=s... Edit: interestingly, the evacuation took about the same time in total, but in a river, not on land.

With roughly half the number of passengers.

And twice as many working exits.

Re: How Japan Airlines crew led 367 passengers to safety from a burning plane

#22
The standard is 90 seconds, not 18 minutes = 1080 seconds. They were very lucky the fire took its time.

Yes, it's necessary to shut down the engines where possible (not this case).

Cabin crew waiting to confer with flight crew can waste precious seconds.

In this case, we may be dealing with smoke inhalation injuries.

Re: How Japan Airlines crew led 367 passengers to safety from a burning plane

#23

The standard is 90 seconds, not 18 minutes = 1080 seconds. They were very lucky the fire took its time. Yes, it's necessary to shut down the engines where possible (not this case). Cabin crew waiting to confer with flight crew can waste precious seconds. In this case, we may be dealing with smoke inhalation injuries.

From the article:

”The A350-900 was certified for a full load of up to 440 passengers to be evacuated within 90 seconds with only half of the exits usable.

It was not immediately clear what portion of the 18-minute operation was spent physically getting passengers down slides”

Re: How Japan Airlines crew led 367 passengers to safety from a burning plane

#24
Seems that an overriding "lock all overhead storage" mechanism and control in the cockpit would be useful in these situations. Forced compliance would save lives. Granted some stow baggage under the seats, but I think an override would still be beneficial.

Re: How Japan Airlines crew led 367 passengers to safety from a burning plane

#26
post #3

I am inclined to think that this exact same scenario featuring a plane full of not Japanese, but, say, Dutch, English, or Americans, would not have resulted in a full evacuation in 18 minutes; possibly with casualties. Obeying commands as a group in a high-pressure situation? That takes a lifetime of living in a culture where this is normal. A group of military passengers (any nationality) would probably have worked…

Maybe this is a good time for me to vent about exit row seating? I was recently on a holiday flight where an older couple walked very delicately up to the gate. When prompted, "are you able and willing to assist in the event of an emergency?" the lady immediately said "oh no, we can't..." and the guy says "well, there won't be an emergency, right?" To her credit, the crew member checking us in very sternly told him t…

s/18-45 year olds//

s/(and I'd prefer men)//

Otherwise I agree. I have no problem with Stallone or Schwarzenegger in the exit rows. But realistically, they fly private jets or in first class.

Edit: Ageism and sexism are good, anti-ageism and feminism are bad! That effective accelerationist mindset has no room for the womenfolk or the senile!

Re: How Japan Airlines crew led 367 passengers to safety from a burning plane

#27
post #7

Was the initial cause of the collision human error? i was on r/singularity and people were saying that pilots should be replaced with AI, but what about if something goes wrong? wouldn't it be better to have a human takeover in emergency situations? but i also wonder if automation would have prevented the initial collision.

Of course it was because of a human error. A passenger plane landed on a runway that already had another plane on it. At least have a proper alerting system in place, we've had the tech for decades, you don't even need AI for any of it... but changes in commercial aviation unfortunately seem to be driven by accidents more than forethought.

Re: How Japan Airlines crew led 367 passengers to safety from a burning plane

#28
post #3

I am inclined to think that this exact same scenario featuring a plane full of not Japanese, but, say, Dutch, English, or Americans, would not have resulted in a full evacuation in 18 minutes; possibly with casualties. Obeying commands as a group in a high-pressure situation? That takes a lifetime of living in a culture where this is normal. A group of military passengers (any nationality) would probably have worked…

Maybe this is a good time for me to vent about exit row seating? I was recently on a holiday flight where an older couple walked very delicately up to the gate. When prompted, "are you able and willing to assist in the event of an emergency?" the lady immediately said "oh no, we can't..." and the guy says "well, there won't be an emergency, right?" To her credit, the crew member checking us in very sternly told him t…

> fit 18-45 year olds in most cases

Anecdotally, I believe many airlines do this - it's happened to me a few times during check in where they've asked if I'd be OK with the emergency seat.

Re: How Japan Airlines crew led 367 passengers to safety from a burning plane

#29
post #3

I am inclined to think that this exact same scenario featuring a plane full of not Japanese, but, say, Dutch, English, or Americans, would not have resulted in a full evacuation in 18 minutes; possibly with casualties. Obeying commands as a group in a high-pressure situation? That takes a lifetime of living in a culture where this is normal. A group of military passengers (any nationality) would probably have worked…

Maybe this is a good time for me to vent about exit row seating? I was recently on a holiday flight where an older couple walked very delicately up to the gate. When prompted, "are you able and willing to assist in the event of an emergency?" the lady immediately said "oh no, we can't..." and the guy says "well, there won't be an emergency, right?" To her credit, the crew member checking us in very sternly told him t…

Is this US or EU or somewhere else? I have some experience in Europe.

I (male early thirties then) once was sat in an exit row (replaced with some other passenger) when flying EasyJet. As I understood then only because I seemed to be more fit to sit there.

Once travelling with Ryanair stewardess exclaimed that "oh no you will be sitting with a baby in an exit row". We said "no no we are sitting the row behind". She said "thanks god I thought I will need to rearrange passengers". Of course a baby in an exit row MUST be a big no no anywhere.

So I have a feeling that it is being looked quite seriously.

Re: How Japan Airlines crew led 367 passengers to safety from a burning plane

#30

The standard is 90 seconds, not 18 minutes = 1080 seconds. They were very lucky the fire took its time. Yes, it's necessary to shut down the engines where possible (not this case). Cabin crew waiting to confer with flight crew can waste precious seconds. In this case, we may be dealing with smoke inhalation injuries.

Yeah: I think it's 18 minutes from the plane touching down the other plane, not the plane standing still... But still: it's very, very, very long.

With 3 safe exits (out of 8 apparently), and 367 passengers+crew, that's 123 passenger per exit. 18 minutes means 7 passenger per minute per exit.

How the heck do you need ten seconds per passenger to hop on the slide? Even the videos from this crash show a much higher throughput.

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