Evacuating the Airbus A380 [Terminal Enthusiasm]
When I first saw pictures of the massive Airbus A380, one of my first thoughts was, how do you get more than 800 people off that plane in an emergency?
No one at Airbus returned my phone call back in March to discuss the plane's evacuation procedures (I left a message with the PR department).
But now thanks to one of my favorite travel blogs, Upgrade: Travel Better (edited by Mark Ashley), my curiosity is somewhat satisfied. Check out Upgrade's post about Airbus' evacuation drill in Hamburg in March. Ashley says the infrared-camera video came from a German news agency.
The evacuation was deemed a success with only one broken leg and only 32 friction burns suffered! It was a test environment, mind you, but everyone was out in about 80 seconds.