water evacuation question

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I apologize if this has already been mentioned.

We just flew into MSP on an A320 and the "Safety Information" card shows a water evacuation where the "over the wing" exits are x'd out.

Front and rear exit are the only ones that passengers were to use.

Given the US Airlines-Hudson River experience with the rear door and the apparent use of the over-wing exits, I don't know what should be the official guidelines.

Does anyone have an answer why?

http://muskegonpundit.blogspot.com/

[mawheatley]

That is very strange. I actually flew as a Flight Attendant for a couple of years and was certified on the A320 amongst other types. We were always told you never open the rear doors in a ditching because the tail will settle deeper into the water and if you open the back doors the water will rush in. Yes, I know that did happen in the Hudson, but that was because a passenger opened it, not the Flight Attendant.

Although most non airline people know the A320 as simply the A320 there are still a number of different varieties within that family. For example, we had two types - the A320 and the A320-EOW, which stands for Extended Over Water. This is going back almost ten years now, so I may be getting a little rusty, but if I'm not mistaken the EOW's actually had rafts as part of the overwing exit. You had to open the exit, throw it out, then pull an inflation handle that was built into the window frame, and was only exposed once the window had been thrown out of the aircraft.

I guess what I'm saying is that it is dependant very much on the ACTUAL aircraft type, not just it's "model number." All the more reason to pay very close attention to the card, and to the Flight Attendants. We had two types of A320 in our one airline - there are certainly more than two out there. Hope this helps a little at least!

[Gandalf123]

I have flown in a number of aircraft. The A320, A330, A340, Boeing 737-200 ranging to -800, BAE-146, Embraer 136 and others. I read the safety card religiously when I get on board. All the safety cards that I have read clearly show that the back doors should not be opened in the event of a water landing. As mawheatley quite rightly says, the back of the plane tends to settle deeper into the water than the front does. I would love to see this safety card.

If you do get to fly on the same plane again, please take a photo of it and send it to us. I am sure we would all be very interested in seeing it.

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photos of the NWA A320 SAFETY INFORMATION card

Here is a link to my photos of the NWA A320 "SAFETY INFORMATION" card on my last two NWA A320 flights.

http://muskegonpundit.blogspot.com/2009/02/us-airways-and-nwa-safety-information.html

I checked my NWA confirmations and both were specific that the equipment to be flown was "A320".

I don't know if they use that as a generic description or it was in fact an A320.

I'd sure like to know more about the best way to get out of a sinking jetliner.

[mawheatley]

I am amazed! That literally flies in the face of what we were taught in training! (Admittedly I did not fly for NW.)

One thing though - you say you'd like to know the best way of getting out of a sinking airliner: How can I put this delicately? Every single person on US1549 is unbelievably lucky to be alive. The odds against surviving a ditching are horrendous. As soon as I heard that an A320 had gone into the Hudson my immediate thought was that everyone aboard had perished. Then I started to hear about there being survivors, and I was astonished. When I heard that every single person had survived, and that there were very few serious injuries I just couldn't believe it.

Of course we train for ditchings. Of course we take the training seriously. You walk away from that training genuinely believing you will survive anything, and lead a full compliment of passengers away from a burning heap of twisted scrap that once called itself an airplane, but when reality sets in, and you read the statistics, and you do something as simple as bouncing your kids in the swimming pool, you realize that water can hurt! At least if you survive an emergency on solid ground the worst is over - there's no sinking involved! I'd welcome the views of some pilots on here - I know when I was flying a lot of them told me they'd rather do a gear up landing on grass than any kind of landing on water any day!

[Dmmoore]

Here is the problem, to certify the aircraft for over water use the aircraft must carry inflatable life vests and enough rafts for all PAX to be accommodated with one raft considered inop. The NWA version of the A320 uses the escape slides as rafts. The aft doors must be opened to use the rafts.

It appears to me that USAir uses the same philosophy even though the FA's didn't open the aft doors.

I suspect the FAA will look again at the certification process. The aft doors should not be used on the A320. Other aircraft may be different.

[cegro27]

Here is a link to my photos of the NWA A320 "SAFETY INFORMATION" card on my last two NWA A320 flights.

http://muskegonpundit.blogspot.com/2009/02/us-airways-and-nwa-safety-information.html

I checked my NWA confirmations and both were specific that the equipment to be flown was "A320".

I don't know if they use that as a generic description or it was in fact an A320.

I'd sure like to know more about the best way to get out of a sinking jetliner.

Follow the instructions of the flight attendants. You look at what happened to US on the Hudson, and you see the pictures of those passengers standing on the wings, with "nowhere to go and no way to get to safety". That is why the overwing exits are blocked out on the safety info card. The only reason those passengers didn't wound up in the water is because there were plenty of boats in the area that were able to respond quickly and rescue those passengers...that wouldn't have happened had this ditching occurred out in open water.

After a ditching, the procedure is to get the passengers out of the plane and into the life rafts. If the rafts happen to double as escape slides at the doors, it's up to the F/A's to decide whether the rear doors are safe to open (are the doors completely under water or not). If the aircraft has remote rafts in a storage bin or ceiling compartment, the safety card will indicate that and, in an actual ditching, the F/A's will instruct exit row passengers to open the window exits and launch the rafts from those exits. It all depends on the aircraft, the flotation devices involved, and what exits are usable for escape. So, as I said before, follow the instructions of the F/A's.