DOT IG ISSUES REPORT ON FAA PROCESS FOR UPDATING AIRPLANE EVACUATION STANDARDS
October 7, 2020
On September 16, 2020, the DOT Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a report, available here, based on an audit the OIG conducted to assess the FAA’s process for developing and updating aircraft emergency evacuation standards. The OIG found that the FAA usually only updates evacuation standards after accidents have occurred, and the last such update occurred after an accident in 1991. The report further found that the FAA’s process currently lacks data collection and analysis of current risks, such as how changes in passenger behavior, passenger demographics, and seating capacity since the 1991 update could affect those standards.
Specifically, the OIG found that the FAA has not adequately studied the effects of passengers’ retrieval of carry-on baggage, passenger demographics, minimum seat dimensions, and emotional support animals during evacuations. The report also found that the FAA does not maintain evacuation certification data, allows manufacturers to use old data, and allows reliance on analyses instead of demonstrations even when the analysis data differs from later demonstration results. Finally, the FAA found that evacuation demonstrations and analyses do not adequately account for real world factors, including smoke created during cabin emergencies and passengers’ behaviors such as use of personal devices. The OIG recommended that the FAA develop and implement a systematic process to regularly collect and analyze data on emergency evacuations and develop a policy or procedures to maintain and analyze aircraft manufacturers’ evacuation demonstrations and analyses data.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6622); Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6665), or Andy Orr (aorr@eckertsemans.com or 202-659-6625).
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