Prof. Galea warns: certification rules for aircraft evacuation are not adequate

Abstract

Prof. Edwin Galea concludes: a) Current certification rules are inappropriate as a safety indicator as they are not representative of likely survivable accident exit configurations. b) Current certification rules are inappropriate as a safety indicator as they are not a sufficiently challenging exit configuration. c) Modeling should also be used for certification analysis and used to investigate additional exit configurations and additional repeat cases (different certification compliant populations; randomized passenger seating allocation). d) The 90-second-rule is arbitrary. Instead coupled fire and evacuation simulations can provide more insight into the fire safety of aircraft cabins.