what restricts aircraft evacuations?

Answer 1

Actually, flight attendents are very well trained at herding people off the planes in a hurry. The two main hold-ups are 1. There are only a limited number of exit points with lots of people trying to get through them and 2. people who stop to pick up personal belongings etc. If a plane is being evacuated JUST LEAVE!!! TAKE NOTHING!!! IF personal items can be recovered you will get yours once it is safe.

Answer 2

All the flight attendents are well trained and demonstrate safety and evacuation procedures before every take off but people dont listen or take them seriously.So, in case of emergency evacuation hold-ups happen because :
1) Exit points are already limited and on top of that people panick and forget exit point location. Their are examples where people tried to run toward another exit point where as the nearest one was just behind them.
2) People trying to pick up personal belongings etc. forgetting that life is more precious than a piece of jewellery or bag. when an aircraft makes an emergency landing, its a time bomb which can blow up any time. Its fille with highly explosive fuel and a single spark can make its an inferno.
4) Obstruction outside the aircraft.
3) Last but not the least the pessangers themselves become the biggest obstackle by creating panic and losing control of the situation.

Answer 3

I've had the unfortunate experience of evacuating. I was the First Officer (one of the pilots). The aircraft had filled up with smoke during our taxi out to the runway (we were not airborn yet). When the command to evacuate was given, all of the passengers tried to gather their belongings. They finally came to their senses and left without their stuff. The evacution took about 25 seconds. This was on a commuter airliner that held 32 people. An evacuation can be very quick (even on bigger aircraft). The single most important thing is to NOT PANIC. Pay attention to crewmember instructions. There is a reason there is a safety demonstration before the flight. Very few people pay attention. Also the safety instruction cards in the seatback pockets are supposed to be reviewed by passengers.
To greatly improve the chances of a successful evacuation you should pay attention to the safety briefing, look over the safety instruction cards, and note the nearest exits. This will all help in the very, very smalll chance that you have to evacuate.

Answer 4

Danl747 gave 2 pretty good reasons. I would like to add that luggage thrown around after an accident make evacuating an obstacle course.

Also there are times when the emergency door are blocked. That is why when they do aircraft evacuations, they on purposely disable half the exit doors and have the passengers get out within 90 seconds. That also restricts aircraft evacuations.

The last item I can think of is panicked passengers. Sometimes passengers are afraid to jump down the passenger chutes/slides that come out of the aircraft door. Therefore other passengers have to either wait until they are ready to jump or throw that passenger down the slide.

Answer 5

All airplanes have to pass a safety evacuation test to be able to take to the skies. This was one of the primary concerns behind the new Airbus A380 because of its immense size. But according to this MSNBC article (first link), the plane was able to evacuate all 853 passengers and 20 crew within 80 seconds using only 6 of the 12 available slides. There is also the story (second link) of an Air France plane that skidded off the runway in Toronto in 2005, and all 309 passengers were able to evacuate unharmed before the plane caught fire. The key to any airline evacuation is speed, and never take any belongings with you. Your life is more important.

Answer 6

Big people slow people and small exit holes great question tho,