This paper examines the influence of exit availability on evacuation time for a narrow
body aircraft under certification trial conditions using computer simulation. A narrow
body aircraft which has previously passed the certification trial is used as the test
configuration. While maintaining the certification requirement of 50% of the
available exits, six different exit configurations are examined. These include the
standard certification configuration (one exit from each exit pair) and five other exit
configurations based on commonly occurring exit combinations found in accidents.
These configurations are based on data derived from the AASK database and the
evacuation simulations are performed using the airEXODUS evacuation simulation
software. The results show that the certification practice of using half the available
exits predominately down one side of the aircraft is neither statistically relevant nor
challenging. For the aircraft cabin layout examined, the exit configuration used in
certification trial produces the shortest egress times. Furthermore, three of the six exit
combinations investigated result in predicted egress times in excess of 90 seconds,
suggesting that the aircraft would not satisfy the certification requirement under these
conditions
