I was just noticing photos from the aborted take-off of a US Airways jet in Philly. The nose gear collapsed and I was noticing how high off the ground the rear door is. So high that the evacuation slide seems to be hanging at an unusually steep angle.

Does anyone know if people were evacuating down that rear slide? Seems quite dangerous to jump down such a steep slide unless those slides are made of material that actually slow you down.

I would think that engineers have already thought about this sort of situation when designing the evacuation slides. The article does not mention any significant injuries.

The picture I just saw showed them going out of the front. I
m not sure they would make those things to slow the passengers down, they need to get out fast, and I would think that slowing them would cause possible injuries and/or deaths, and resulting in lawsuits.

Not to drift this thread, (my humble apologies arney) but didn't think this story worthy of a new thread, but it is mildly interesting, to me.

http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/into-the-wild-hunter-fatally-shot-by-police-in-alaska

Unfortunately, there are many aircraft (including the Boeing 737)that have unusable rear slides when only the nose wheel is up or collapses. This is a particular problem for the 737 Freighter (it can carry freight forward of the passengers). I assume the designers expected a wheels down or wheels up situation. If the nose wheel is up and the main gear is down, the only available exit is the overwing one, which is now on a steeply tilting wing. Makes it hard to get the little old ladies off in a hurry. Made worse when the passengers don't all speak one language. And some of them don't have a word for nosewheel in their language.

Respectfully,

Jerry

I would assume that the cabin crew are trained not to open that rear door if the plane is tilting forward like that, particularly if it's a known issue on some types of equipment, as Jerry mentioned above. However, it may be very difficult for someone inside to really know how much of a tilt is too much unless you opened the door and looked out, especially in a stressful situation.

Unfortunately, I assume that opening the door to check also automatically deploys the slide whether it's safe to exit that way or not.

In a panic, I could imagine passengers making an unwise beeline for any exit that they think leads outside. Throw in some smoke or flames or the sight of a bloody passenger or two inside the cabin and I could easily see people tumbling out that back door in a panic if the door is open like that unless a crew member is blocking it and turning people back.

At least on our aircraft, the crew knew that they could not use the rear door.


Respectfully,

Jerry

Similarly, in a water ditching many aircraft tend to settle deeper to the rear, making the aft cabin doors unusable for excape.

If I remember correctly the FAA requires that aircrat manufacturers demonstrate that they can evacuate a plane in 90 seconds using only half of the exits. When I get on any aircraft, I make it a point to take a moment to look around and think about both a primary and a secondary exit.

True. You could see that with the Airbus during the "miracle on the Hudson" water landing in NY.

Actually, I have a vague recollection that one of the rear doors was opened during that incident and shouldn't have been, causing the tail to sink even faster than it otherwise would've.

Or maybe I'm remembering the fact that the pilots did not have time to reach the part of the ditching checklist to activate the switch(es) to close all the exterior openings in preparation for a water landing.

Arney, the "close outer vents" or whatever checklist item was just about the last item on the A320 ditching checklist. That was the reason for the aircraft being tail heavy in the water. In fact, the plane was filling up with water much, much quicker because the vents were not closed. Good recall.

I was researching this some more and actually, both things happened--the ditching checklist was not finished AND one of the rear doors was partially opened, allowing water to enter the cabin.

There is conflicting testimony by the cabin crew and passengers about who actually opened the rear door. Multiple passengers had said that it was one of the flight attendants who opened the door. That same flight attendant says a panicked passenger pushed past her and started to open the door. An NTSB hearing was convened to answer a number of questions, including this one, but it seems to have been inconclusive regarding this issue.

In any case, icy cold water entering the cabin from that door made it more difficult for the passengers in the rear of the cabin to make their way forward to the overwing exits.