27.03.06
Airbus successfully evacuated 853 people acting as passengers from its superjumbo A380, the biggest passenger plane ever built. The test was a critical milestone in the process of certifying the plane as safe to begin commercial service.
Airbus declared it a 'great success' even though one man broke a leg and 32 others suffered minor injuries sliding down evacuation chutes. The test was conducted in a darkened hangar at an Airbus test facility in Hamburg, Germany. Eighteen flight attendants from Lufthansa, an airline which has ordered the A380, managed the evacuation.
The Federal Aviation Administration and safety organizations from other countries require that an aircraft manufacturer show any new plane can be evacuated in 90 seconds before it will be certified to enter service. Airbus said the complete evacuation took just 80 seconds even though half of the double-decker plane's 16 exits were blocked to simulate crash conditions.
The evacuation test was the first ever tried with the A380 and involved the most passengers ever in such a test. That it was successful the first time came as a something of a surprise to airline executives and journalists who cover the industry. 'We were very happy with this result' said Charles Champion, chief operating officer for Airbus, in a bit of understatement.
