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No, you are not growing as fast as you think – airline seats are really shrinking! Rob Smith (@robsmithonline) has all the details.
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The new seats for the Southwest Airlines cabs are shown in this undated photo. (Photo: Southwest Airlines Co.)

WASHINGTON – The Federal Aviation Administration announced Tuesday that it did not need to regulate the airlines' seats because the tests for the airline's seats in the United States were not complete. evacuation proved that there was enough room for maneuver, despite consumer complaints about cramped spaces. [19659007] The FlyersRights.org group has challenged the FAA at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals because of concerns that tighter seats with larger passengers could prevent evacuations in the US. 90 seconds goal. The Appeals Committee ordered FAA nearly a year ago to review its safety rules for the seats.

In a six-page record Tuesday, Dorenda Baker, FAA's executive director for aviation safety, said: "However, Paul Hudson, the lawyer who filed the case as president from FlyersRights.org, said the FAA's response proves his group's argument that large-scale evacuation tests have not been conducted for decades. tighter, passengers grew up, with three overweight or obese Americans, he said.

"If you do not do the tests, it's obvious if you put your head up in the sand "The lawsuit noted that the distance between the seatbacks, which the industry calls" pitch, "shrank by 35 inches before Congress deregulated the industry in 1978 to 31 inches on average today, with some at 28 inches .The width of the seat has also dropped an inch or so two compared to the previous 18-inch average

but the FAA stated that there was no evidence that larger passengers would take more than a few seconds to get out of their seat. The FAA also stated that there was no evidence that the smallest distance between the ranks "would increase human panic" as the trial argued.

The key to a quick evacuation, according to the FAA, is the sequence. The aircraft is immobilized, flight attendants determine that the exits are safe, deploy slides or open side exits, and the passengers remove the seat belts.

"Passengers of all sizes use these first seconds to get out," said Jeffrey Gardlin, Senior Technical Specialist for Aircraft Cabin Safety and Survival at the FAA

. Gardlin attended 24 complete evacuation demonstrations for 18 aircraft models. He acknowledged in an eight-page affidavit that the FAA has evidence that the circumference of a passenger can hinder the crossing of an air sortie

"However, the FAA found no evidence that the circumference, in the current US population, affects the speed at which a person can get out of his seat or enter the driveway, or that circumference otherwise creates an evacuation problem, "Gardlin said.

Squares remain controversial for airline passengers. The House voted to require the FAA to set minimum standards for airline seats, but without imposing specifications. The Department of Transportation announced on June 18 that it would check the FAA's evacuation standards, given changes in the airline industry and in passengers. asked members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

FlyersRights.org challenged the FAA in court for allowing airlines and manufacturers to squeeze more passengers on flights. As the seats were smaller, the group argued that evacuations could compromise the safety of passengers and that they could develop deep vein thrombosis.

The call group called the FAA for its "wispy record" of evacuation tests.

The FAA cites studies that "say nothing and do not seem to control the height, breadth, or any other dimension of the seat," writes Judge Patricia Millett of the US Court of Appeals for the United States. court. ", Wrote Millett

but after its review of the year, the FAA refused to start a new regulation on the size of the seats. The FAA posted Boeing, Airbus and Embraer evacuation test videos demonstrating orderly evacuations.

"For the reasons stated here, we continue to refuse to initiate the regulations on the basis of your petition". -page page accompanying the video that delays in the evacuation tend to result from "natural hesitation" of some passengers to jump on an escape slide.

Boeing stated that he conducted large-scale evacuation demonstrations in the dark with debris in aisles on 28-inch aircraft, including the 767-300 with 351 Passengers in April 1996.

"Therefore, on the basis of extensive testing, it is the flow at the exits and not the pitch of the seat which is the main factor that indicates the speed at which an aircraft can be evacuated "said Tom Galantowicz, technical director of Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the letter.

Airbus and Embraer made similar statements. Embraer, for example, tested evacuations of the 190-100 with 116 passengers in rows of 28 and 29 inches.

"As observed in the video, there is no concern about the path from the evacuee of the seat to access the driveway of the cabin," the manufacturer said in a statement four pages.

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