Senate Democrat questions FAA on recent airplane evacuations

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) questioned the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over recent airplane evacuations in a Tuesday letter.

In her letter, Duckworth referenced three recent evacuation incidents, all previously noted by the FAA, and stated, “fortunately, for all three incidents, professional and highly trained flight crews were able to guide all passengers to safety with minimal injuries.”

“While FAA has yet to disclose how long any of the referenced passenger evacuations took, these incidents once again raise serious questions about FAA’s 90 second evacuation standard as well as FAA’s assumptions about how evacuations occur in real world conditions (such as the assumption every passenger will comply with instructions to deplane without carry-on bags),” the Illinois senator added.

Duckworth’s letter follows a few notable aviation incidents in the last year that have rattled Americans and raised questions about air safety, including a deadly crash between an American Airlines flight and an Army helicopter close to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that left no survivors.

“We will respond directly to Sen. Duckworth,” the FAA said in an email to The Hill on Tuesday. “Concerning evacuations: Safety is our top priority. That’s why the FAA’s message to passengers is simple: if you have to evacuate, leave your bags behind and follow crew instructions.”

Duckworth also pressed the FAA to “provide detailed responses to” questions about the three previously mentioned incidents, like the length of time needed “to evacuate all passengers and crew” and the number of passengers that “exited with carry-on bags.”