Passenger Evacuation Trial on a Military Transport Aircraft
P C Bridges, S R Brown and M D Glanfield
Introduction
The UK MoD required a live passenger evacuation trial carried out
on a new transport aircraft, the Lockheed Martin C130-J aircraft in
this category had previously not been required to demonstrate
passenger evacuation but for this trial 'worst case scenarios' were
requested. Evacuation criteria are not rigidly specified for
transport aircraft owing to the variety of passenger, troop and
cargo configurations carried but existing commercial and military
legislation were used as yardsticks by which to make the
assessments. Crew procedures and safety equipment were also studied
to gain maximum information from the trial.
Methods
Four evacuations were evaluated. A full load of non-combatants
evacuated through:
(1) A reduced number of ground level exits.
(2) The roof hatches to simulating sea-ditching.
A full paratroop complement repeated this. Safety of the participants and observers was paramount but damage to the aircraft also had to be negligible as only two were available for trials. Specialised scaffolding, ramps and padding around all identified hazards was used. Experienced aircrew, medics and observers monitored the evacuations, assisted by video monitoring inside and outside the aircraft. A rehearsed set of signals was devised to stop the trial if necessary.
Results
All evacuations were completed satisfactorily and without injury.
Analysis of video recordings, participants questionnaires and
observations identified changes that could be made to procedures,
equipment design and seat layout to improve evacuation
capability.
Conclusions
Live evacuation trials still provide valuable information that
might improve survivability following an aircraft incident. New
military aircraft entering service may require similar assessments
but careful planning, using available information and expertise,
can minimise personal injuries sometimes associated with these
trials.
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