- Author
-
U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment
- Title
- Aircraft Evacuation Testing: Research and Technology Issues. Background Paper.
- Coporate
- Congress, Washington, DC
- Report
-
OTA-BP-SET-121
September 1993
56 p.
- Keywords
-
aircraft safety
|
evacuation
|
aircraft compartments
|
regulations
|
certification
|
fire safety
- Abstract
- The U.S. air transportation industry has an outstanding safety record. Yet passenger safety aboard U.S. airlines remains a continuining issue for the public, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the U.S. Congress. One concern is that aircraft be evacuated quickly and safely in an emergency. FAA certification criteria and test methods are integral to evaluating the evacuation capabilities of new aircraft. In November 1991, the Subcommittee on Government Activities and Transportation of the House Committee on Government Operations requested that the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) "...study the prospects for improving existing methods of evacuation testing in light of the need to balance realism against the safety of test participants." For this study, OTA examined regulatory, research, and technology issues related to passenger safety and evacuation testing.