Today, a Boeing 737 from China Airlines caught fire on japanese airport in Okinawa, after landing. All passengers were able to leave the plane, only three of them have been lightly hurt. The following YouTube video shows some images from this fire

As always, the media said it was a miracle that no one have been killed… What they forgot to mention is that the certification standards include evacuation rules. The rule says that the plane must be evacuated by a full load of passengers using only half of the exits within 90 seconds.

This has to be demonstrated by the manufacturers. Obviously the demonstration takes place with calm people, but it’s in the dark, with their seat belts fastened at the beginning. The following video has been taken during the official demonstration for the Airbus 380. They evacuated through 8 of the 16 emergeny slides.

You also might object that there are no obese people amongst the “passengers” this day…

Nevertheless, this requirement demonstrated its usefuleness with this chinese Boeing, and it is not the first time… In 2003, an Airbus 340 with 309 passengers did crash-land in Toronto. All of the passengers have been evacuated within 90 seconds, and beleive me they were all but trained ! On top of that, the aircraft was also under fire, so half of the exits were useable, exactly as by the rule !

So, friends journalits, it is certainly a good thing that all those people could evacuate the plane safely, but this is because of WORK, not because of a miracle !