An Analysis of Exit Availability, Exit Usage and Passenger Exit Selection Behaviour Exhibited During Actual Aviation Accidents

The exits which passengers select in evacuation situations and the exits which are available post-crash is of great interest to aviation safety regulators who make rulings defining exit separation and aircraft evacuation certification, aircraft designers who develop the interior layout of aircraft cabins and position exits within the fuselage, cabin safety specialists who develop procedures for managing aircraft evacuation and cabin crew who must control aircraft evacuations. In this paper we examine issues associated with passenger exit selection behaviour and exit configurations frequently experienced during survivable crashes. This work makes use of the latest version of the Aircraft Accident Statistics and Knowledge database AASK V4.0, which contains information from 105 survivable crashes and over 2,000 survivors.