Rapid vs emergency evacuation
Now the ATSB is recommending a more nuanced emergency slide operation - rapid vs emergency.
In chaotic environments such as a evacuation, the mental model of passengers and cabin crew may be very different. Trying to get everyone to the same mental model - ie this is a rapid evac and not an emergency evac may well be impossible to achieve. They already have difficulty telling passengers to leave bags behind let alone giving commands that may be different to what passengers are expecting when they see slides being deployed.
What are the potential risks here of adopting a tiered evac when slides are deployed from an aviator’s POV?.
I haven’t read anything from the ATSB regarding this, but it’s worth noting that for the vast majority of my career with QF, they had exactly this procedure in place. As best I recall it was withdrawn because someone (the ATSB perhaps) felt that having two procedures would be confusing.
If the aircraft comes to a halt with lots of braking, the call “evacuate, evacuate, evacuate” is made, and there an alarm screeching, then running away via whatever opening you can find would seem to be a good response. Those who need their luggage, should wait and go last.
But, if a reasonably calm PA is made, explaining what will happen, and then only one or two slides are set off, whilst the cabin crew guard the others, and their doors remain closed, then I expect most people will be able to grasp that it’s walk away, not run. This procedure can be upgraded to an evacuation, and even more importantly, it can be stopped. If some still feel the overwhelming need to use a slide, then I’d let them.
The entire evacuation scenario is very interesting. It is anything but black and white. If I take my QF30 as an example, I’m certain that many airlines would have evacuated as soon as the aircraft stopped. We considered that, but saw no real need, and there was the certain knowledge that we‘d go from having no injuries to some. Nevertheless, the cabin crew remained ‘primed’ by the doors until we were parked. Options are always good.