How aircraft cabin safety has been improved over time and lessons learned

How aircraft cabin safety has been improved over time, and how many lessons have been learned and implemented.

Accident data from ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) for the year 2021 showed that in commercial air transport, the number of accidents had dropped from the previous year, down from 2.14 to 1.93 per million departures. Going back further, the difference would be significantly more substantial.

Out of the air accidents that do happen, some will be unrecoverable, but in most cases, passengers and crew will survive accidents on the ground due to improved cabin safety over the years. After every accident, if there is something noted regarding cabin safety in the investigation, recommendations are made. Below is a list of some such improvements implemented over time.

Seat design
Passenger seating has been improved to withstand 16Gs of gravity and cabin floor strength has been increased to improve passengers’ chance of survival should an accident occur. Cabin crew seating has been improved with harnesses that also restrain the upper half of the body. The back of the jump seat is now better designed to protect the head.

Protection from fire
Fire retardant fabrics are standard onboard the aircraft now, and surfaces are designed to delay flashover in case of a fire. Emergency exit floor markings and low-level lighting have been introduced on all commercial aircraft. These allow more time to evacuate the aircraft and a more speedy evacuation. Lavatory smoke detectors and automatic fire extinguishers in the waste bins are important safety features that were introduced just before the complete ban on smoking on aircraft.

Emergency exits
Distances to emergency exits and better signage have also been established across commercial aviation. There should be one passenger emergency exit on each side of the fuselage, not more than 60 feet from an exit on the same side on the same deck. Exits must be distributed uniformly on the aircraft.

Crew resource management
Crew resource management (CRM) became part of pilot training in the 80s and 90s and eventually extended to cabin crew training. This was in order to improve communication between the flight crew themselves and then, after, between the cabin crew and the flight crew and to lessen the chances of incidents and accidents occurring.

Cabin crew training
Cabin crew training has become more competency-based. Fire training now includes how to deal with lithium battery and cell phone fires. Cabin crew are now also being trained to deal with biological, chemical and radiological incidents. The pandemic has shown cabin crew how to assess and isolate an infectious passenger onboard the aircraft. They are also being trained in how to recognize and stop human trafficking onboard. The rise in unruly passengers has led to many airlines including self-defense as part of their training.

Lessons learned
From every accident, we learn something new and can make improvements to safety standards. From United Airlines flight 811, we learned that masks should be attached to oxygen bottles in preparation for a decompression. The same flight induced a review of life vests and the number of megaphones needed onboard.

Eastern Airlines flight 401 began the evolution of CRM, improved cabin crew jump seat restraints and flashlights were introduced to safety equipment onboard. British Airtours 328 brought us improvements in fire protection in the cabin, the use of smoke hoods for cabin crew and the introduction of the over-wing exit briefing and the rules of who can sit there.

British Midland flight 092, taught us about CRM, and the terminology used onboard. It also instigated much research into the brace position and led to improved passenger seating and overhead lockers. simpleflying.com