22 January 2009

Revealed: What airlines donÃ¢â¬â¢t tell you about ditching in water

SYDNEY Ã¢â¬' There was an interesting article from aviation writer Ben Sandilands on the Crikey.com website last week..

Sandilands revealed that there is something about single aisle jets like the one that splashed down on New York's Hudson River that you are never told in safety briefings on any airline.

And that is that if you were to pop the rear exits in a "water parking" incident like the one involving the US Airways jet, the plane will sink - very, very quickly.

Sandilands wrote:

The Airbus A320s, like the one involved in the dramatic but fatality-free crash, and their Boeing 737 counterparts, will come to rest in survivable ditchings in a tail down attitude with the rear door sills under water.

But airlines all around the world consider this "too much information".

Instead passengers are asked to study "the safety card in front of you", which gives easy to follow instructions, also reproduced in large letters and symbols on the inside of the doors, as to how to release the doors if the cabin attendants are "incapacitated".

Bear this in mind. You are asked to note your nearest exit. And you are shown how to operate it. But you are never told not to deploy the rear doors if you find yourself on a body of water

In the outstandingly successful emergency landing on the Hudson River, the crew seated in the jump seats beside each rear door had been trained to urge passengers forward to the overwing and front sets of exits in such a situation.

This was exceptionally important in New York. Not only was the river freezing cold, but fast flowing. The jet floated from around 50th Street on Manhattan to at least 23rd Street in a matter of minutes, bedecked on the wings, and the forward door slides, with passengers looking as if they were waiting for a train.

The forward slides on which most of them were standing could also have been detached and turned into life boats.

Awareness of the dangers of the rear exits in a ditching is just one of the critical elements of cabin crew training.

But what if the rear section cabin crew were incapacitated?

Maybe a sign DO NOT OPEN AFTER A WATER LANDING should be affixed to the inside of the rear doors.