Effectiveness of Flight Attendants Attempting to Extinguish Fires in an Accessible Cargo Compartment

Details

• Creators:
  Blake, David
• Corporate Creators:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. William J. Hughes Technical Center. Fire Safety Section
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Office of Aviation Research
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Air Cargo Airplanes Fire Extinguishers Fires Flight Attendants Flight Crews Human Factors Engineering
• Publication/ Report Number:
  DOT/FAA/AR-TN99/29
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Technical Notes
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. William J. Hughes Technical Center
• Abstract:
  This technical note documents the results of a project to evaluate the ability of flight attendants to extinguish cargo fires in small Class B cargo compartments. Thirteen fire tests were conducted in a modified Shorts 330 airplane in which flight attendants attempted to extinguish cargo fires. Some of the selected test variables included the cargo compartment size, the width of the access door, the size and type of fire extinguishers available, the presence and absence of an unobstructed center aisle in the cargo compartment, the type of Protective Breathing Equipment (PBE), and the delay between the smoke detector alarm and the start of the firefighting efforts. The results of the testing indicated that in most cases the flight attendants were unable to successfully extinguish these fires.
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center for Advanced Aerospace
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7c4a379aa462916d4144e0c879d1faf047207569fc1cf40537ee0c624b2ae05ec3796ef3013bd1e8324edbba04ff4c04e3eb2c9822593cbc350fd1d17b66ff6a
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/90179/dot_90179_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 497.31 KB ]