If an airplane has to be evacuated, the Federal Aviation Administration says all passengers must be capable of getting outwithin 90 seconds.

But critics say the agency’s testing standards have not kept pace with the shrinking size of airplane seats — which means more people jammed into the cabin — or the changing composition of the flying public.

“This is ridiculous. This is not how we travel today,” said U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) in an interview.

Duckworth argues the FAA’s current tests fail to take real world conditions into consideration.

They did not mimic the seat density of a modern aircraft. They had no carry-on baggage. They had nobody over the age of 60 and nobody under the age of 18,” said Duckworth, a former Army helicopter pilot who lost both her legs in the Iraq war.

They didn’t have anybody with a disability. Of course they were able to evacuate the aircraft in 90 seconds,” she said.

  • Ashyr@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Imagine if they forced planes to have reasonable seats again! I’d love to be able to sit without my knees jammed in the seat in front of me.

    I’m not even that tall. My father-in-law literally can’t fit in a regular seat due to his height.

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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      4 months ago

      Bad news is us tall guys get bruised knees from the seats. Good news is we get to watch everything everyone is doing on the screens in front of us. I watched like ten movies at once on the last flight I was on.

  • reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    Imagine if the institutions that are meant to oversee and regulate industries for our safety hadn’t been gutted and neutered by capitalists.

  • catloaf@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Wait, why does carryon baggage matter? In an emergency, you leave it behind.

    • mynachmadarch@kbin.social
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      4 months ago

      If it’s not shoved under the seat in front of you properly it can be a tripping hazard and slow things down, plus if the overhead bins don’t stay latched well because they weren’t maintained well (which is a thing I’ve seen often) then any emergency could possibly have thrown that into the aisle.

      I dunno, it makes sense to at least look at it further.

    • hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      With how overstuffed the interior of planes has become since the check-bag fees got so high, I think it would silly not to simulate that much more stuff. Empty bags in all the overheads and stuffed bags under every seat.