The size of your seat and how much legroom you'll get on a future flight could be decided by 720 Oklahomans taking part in a first-of-its-kind test to determine if jam-packed planes slow emergency evacuations.
Frequent flyers on U.S. airlines are all too aware that cramped economy cabins are detrimental to comfort. But federal officials who write airline safety rules have never tested whether smaller seats or tightly packed rows have any effect on evacuation time.
"It is a big pet peeve of flyers, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there is a safety issue," said Stacey Zinke-McKee, a medical-research official at the Federal Aviation Administration facility in Oklahoma City where the tests are being conducted.
Richard DeWeese, Supervisor of the Aeromedical Engineering Sciences Section at the FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, exits a smoke-filled simulator during a demonstration at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, in Oklahoma City. Federal researchers, using 720 volunteers in Oklahoma City, will test whether smaller seats and crowded rows slow down airline emergency evacuations. (AP PhotoSue Ogrocki)
Beginning next month, FAA researchers will recruit people from churches, universities and online to come up with a test group similar to the overall U.S. population. Sixty at a time, they will be seated in a simulator laid out like a Boeing 737 or an Airbus A320, planes commonly used on domestic flights.
Flight attendants will tell them to get out of the simulator — money will be paid to the first ones off to mimic the sense of panic that occurs in an emergency. Then the seats and rows will be reconfigured, and they will run the tests again — four times with each group of 60 volunteers.
The researchers will compare tests to see if smaller seats or tighter rows make any difference. A dramatic difference would presumably be reason for FAA to set more generous minimum standards for the airlines to follow. An FAA rulemaking panel will use that data to help set seating standards for airlines, with a decision possible by late next year.
Stacey L. Zinke-McKee, a medical-research official at the Federal Aviation Administration facility in Oklahoma City, answers a question in front of an aircraft simulator Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, in Oklahoma City. Federal researchers, using 720 volunteers in Oklahoma City, will test whether smaller seats and crowded rows slow down airline emergency evacuations. (AP PhotoSue Ogrocki)
The average American adult is about 10 pounds (4 1/2 kilograms) heavier than just two decades ago, according to government figures, and airlines are squeezing more passengers into the economy cabin to make more room for high-paying customers in business class. That means tighter rows in the back of the plane.
Congress last year ordered the FAA to set minimums for seat sizes and the distance between rows.
Airlines "are cramming in more and more and more seats, closer and closer together. People are getting bigger," House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., told the FAA's deputy administrator at a hearing last month. "I don't believe we can meet the standard anymore" for rapid evacuations.
Members of the media participate in a demonstration of an airline cabin filling with smoke, in a simulator at the FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute in the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, in Oklahoma City. Federal researchers, using 720 volunteers in Oklahoma City, will test whether smaller seats and crowded rows slow down airline emergency evacuations. (AP PhotoSue Ogrocki)
The distance from any point on a seat — say, the front of the armrest — and the same spot on the seat in the next row is called pitch, and pitch has been shrinking. A few years ago, the standard was around 34 inches (86 centimeters). Today in the economy cabin of U.S. airlines it is more often around 30 or 31 inches (76 to 79 centimeters), and even tighter on some, including Spirit Airlines.
Planes are also more crowded. The average flight now is about 85% full — it was 88% on Delta over the summer — and during peak hours every seat is taken.
Consider also that more passengers carry bags on board, and hundreds of thousands of them bring an emotional-support animal too, and it stands to reason that it will take longer to get everybody out during an emergency.
Until last year, the FAA resisted calls to set minimum seat and row standards, saying those are matters of passenger comfort, not safety, and it's a safety regulator.
The FAA's Deputy Administrator Daniel Elwell agreed at last month's congressional hearing that Americans are getting bigger, but he noted that in two recent accidents that destroyed planes — a 2014 Asiana crash in San Francisco that killed three passengers, and a 2018 Aeromexico crash in Durango, Mexico, with no deaths — other passengers were able to evacuate safely.
"Survivability today is much, much better," he said.
Since the 1980s, the FAA has taken steps to make evacuations faster. It shortened the distance between emergency exits, it improved access to smaller exits like those over the wings — under pressure from Congress — and it required airlines to judge whether people sitting in exit rows can physically operate the door and help others get out.
By this time next year, we might know whether minimum seat sizes and legroom will be added to that list.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A $12 billion passenger bullet train linking Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area was dubbed the first true high-speed rail line in the nation on Monday, with the private company building it predicting millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028.
“People have been dreaming of high-speed rail in America for decades,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg before taking a stage with union representatives and company officials at the future site of a terminal to be built just south of the Las Vegas Strip. “It’s really happening this time."
Buttigieg cited Biden administration support for the project that he said will bring thousands of union jobs, boost local economies and cut traffic and air pollution.
Brightline West, whose sister company already operates a fast train between Miami and Orlando in Florida, aims to lay 218 miles (351 kilometers) of new track almost all in the median of Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga, California. It would link there with a commuter rail connection to downtown Los Angeles. A station also is planned in San Bernardino County’s Victorville area.
Company officials say the goal is to have trains exceeding speeds of 186 mph (300 kph) — comparable to Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains — operating in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
“I believe we’ll look back at today and say, ’This was the birth of an industry of high-speed rail,'” Brightline Holdings founder Wes Edens said Monday.
The company aims to link U.S. cities that are too near each other for air travel to make sense and too far for people to drive.
Las Vegas has no Amtrak service. The idea of a bullet train to Los Angeles dates back decades under various names including DesertXpress. Brightline West acquired the project in 2019, and company and public officials say it has all required right-of-way and environmental approvals, along with labor agreements.
Brightline received Biden administration backing including a $3 billion grant from federal infrastructure funds and recent approval to sell another $2.5 billion in tax-exempt bonds. The company won federal authorization in 2020 to sell $1 billion in similar bonds.
Brightline West says electric-powered trains will cut the four-hour trip across the Mojave Desert to a little more than two hours. It projects 11 million one-way passengers per year, with fares that Edens said will be comparable to airline ticket costs. The trains will offer rest rooms, Wi-Fi, food and beverage sales and the option to check luggage.
Officials hope the train line will relieve congestion on I-15, where drivers often sit in miles of crawling traffic while returning home to Southern California from a Las Vegas weekend. An average of more than 44,000 automobiles per day crossed the California-Nevada state line on I-15 in 2023, according to Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority data.
Florida-based Brightline Holdings' Miami-line debuted in 2018 and expanded service to Orlando International Airport last September with trains reaching speeds up to 125 mph (200 kph). It offers 16 round-trips per day with one-way tickets for the 235-mile (378-kilometer) distance costing about $80.
Other fast trains in the U.S. include Amtrak’s Acela, which can top 150 mph (241 kph) between Boston and Washington, D.C. But fast train connections for other U.S. cities have been floated, including Dallas to Houston; Atlanta to Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago to St. Louis; and Seattle to Portland, Oregon. Most have faced delays.
In California, a proposed 500-mile (805-kilometer) rail line linking Los Angeles and San Francisco was approved by voters in 2008, but has been beset by rising costs and routing disputes. A 2022 business plan by the California High-Speed Rail Authority projected the cost had more than tripled to $105 billion.
The Las Vegas strip is shown behind the groundbreaking sight of a high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
CORRECTS TO SEN. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., speaks at the groundbreaking for a high-speed passenger rail on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Kids play in confetti at the groundbreaking ceremony for a high-speed railway on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil) (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks at the groundbreaking for a high-speed passenger rail on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
A plane takes off behind a groundbreaking for a high-speed passenger rail on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., speaks at the groundbreaking for a high-speed passenger rail on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., left, and Sen. Jacky Rosend, D-Nev., right, speak at the groundbreaking for a high-speed passenger rail on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo leaves the stage at a groundbreaking for a high-speed passenger rail on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, center, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, right, drive rail spikes into a symbolic rail, on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
FILE - This photo taken Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, shows the site of a proposed station for a high-speed rail line to Las Vegas, background, at the end of the Dale Evans Parkway exit from Interstate 15, on the far outskirts of the Mojave Desert city of Victorville, Calif. Brightline West and U.S. transportation secretary and other officials projecting that millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
FILE - This photo Jan. 25, 2012, photo shows the site of a proposed station for a high-speed rail line to Las Vegas, foreground, with Interstate 15 in the background, on the far outskirts of Victorville, Calif., the Mojave Desert city on the route from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Brightline West and U.S. transportation secretary and other officials projecting that millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
This Jan. 25, 2012, photo shows the site of a proposed station for the high-speed rail line to Las Vegas at the end of the Dale Evans Parkway exit from Interstate 15, on the far outskirts of the Mojave Desert city of Victorville, Calif. Brightline West and U.S. transportation secretary and other officials projecting that millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
FILE - A Brightline train is shown at a station in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Jan. 11, 2018. A fast-tracked plan to build a high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area is set to mark the start of construction. Brightline West and U.S. transportation secretary and other officials projecting that millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
