The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last updated aircraft evacuation standards 16 years ago, and since then, the agency has not conducted enough research to fully understand the role of passenger behavior during evacuations, a government watchdog agency says.
In a report released last week, the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (OIG) said that the FAA typically has updated evacuation standards only after an accident. The report noted that the FAA has said that the lack of any recent update is in large part a result of high rates of accident survivability.
The most recent update, in 2004, was based on an accident that occurred in 1991.
In addition to only rarely updating evacuation standards, the FAA “also conducts insufficient research on passenger behaviors, such as evacuations with carry-on baggage and use of emotional support animals, and seat dimensions to determine how they affect evacuation standards,” the report said. “This lack of pass…
