NTSB: Emergency Slides Fail About 30 Percent Of The Time

American Airlines Flight 1128, an MD-80, was pushing back from the gate when suddenly, black smoke filled the cabin. The captain declared an emergency and ordered everyone on board to evacuate. Flight attendants activated the aircraft's four slides. But the emergency slide in the aircraft's tail failed to deploy.

Eight of the 94 people on board were hurt in the rush for an alternate way out of the aircraft.

In fact, the NTSB says about one in three slides fails on a regular basis. So, the safety agency, in a letter to the FAA, said it wants airlines to check ten percent of their slides on a regular basis.

That doesn't thrill the airlines, and the FAA knows it. "We are actively working to develop an alternate approach that would satisfy the intent of the safety recommendation," said FAA spokesman Les Dorr.

But how effective would those "alternate approaches" be?

In the case of AAL 1128, investigators found problems had been improperly rigged or modified by maintenance workers. In fact, when American inspected the chutes on all its MD-80s, it found 47 slides on about 300 jets were so badly rigged that, in an emergency, they would have failed to inflate. American fixed the problem and now, Air Cruisers, the company that makes the slides, suggests a one-time inspection of all emergency chutes.

In its letter to the FAA, the NTSB recommended it:

• Expeditiously issue an airworthiness directive to require operators to implement Air Cruisers Service Bulletin 304-25-24 on an accelerated schedule and not wait for the slides’ next regularly scheduled maintenance interval. (A-04-42)
• Require operators that are operating airplanes with slides with part number 61866-101 inflation cables that have been modified to include a manual inflation cable handle with a key ring, to reinstall new, unmodified part number 61866-101 inflation cables (in which the manual inflation handle does not include a key ring) at the next scheduled maintenance opportunity. (A-04-43)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov