Looking for study about evacuation of aircraft

[Allan F]

In a recent discussion, I postulated that there has been an evacuation test of an airliner, where the test persons were promised a financial reward, if they were among the first out of the aircraft. This experiment led to congestion around narrow areas in the aircraft, slow evac, hurt testpersons, and ultimately led to a change in the interior design of airliners, giving more space to move around tight areas.

But I can't find the study. Does anybody know what I'm on about?

[Obviousman]

Yep, I know the one. Let me see if I can find it.

[Obviousman]

See Aircraft Evacuations Onto Escape Slides and Platforms I: Effects of Passenger Motivation, DOT/FAAAM-96/18.

From this page:  https://www.flightglobal.com/do-aircraft-evacuation-tests-work/82508.article

In this study, the 'competitive' group were offered a financial bonus of $50 to be among the first 25% passengers to evacuate the arcraft. However, the passengers in the competitve trials "...(became) more aggressive and climbing over seats, outmaneuvering other passengers, etc. to get out quickly" resulting in broken over seat backs, among others. I suspect participant safety is the main reason FAA doesn't offer any incentives duing demonstration.

[Allan F]

BRILLIANT - this was in a discussion with a female airline pilot, who absolutely thought that was bad information.

[Dalhousie]

See Aircraft Evacuations Onto Escape Slides and Platforms I: Effects of Passenger Motivation, DOT/FAAAM-96/18.

From this page:  https://www.flightglobal.com/do-aircraft-evacuation-tests-work/82508.article

In this study, the 'competitive' group were offered a financial bonus of $50 to be among the first 25% passengers to evacuate the arcraft. However, the passengers in the competitve trials "...(became) more aggressive and climbing over seats, outmaneuvering other passengers, etc. to get out quickly" resulting in broken over seat backs, among others. I suspect participant safety is the main reason FAA doesn't offer any incentives duing demonstration.

This seems to be removed from the current version of the article

[Glom]

Do we really care about broken seat backs? If the aircraft needs evacuating, it is probably a write off anyway.

[ka9q]

I suspect the idea was to make the test a little less unrealistic. In a real evacuation you're anxious to get out, and that will naturally make (some) people rather competitive. It's a little unethical to motivate a test subject by threatening to harm them for being slow, so perhaps they figured a positive reward might suffice. But I think it's still a very different situation.