The Federal Aviation Administration of the Department of Transportation of the United States is requesting your input pertaining to whether the dimensions of seats and associated leg room aboard airplanes should be of a minimum size as part of a broader review into how various factors could impact a successful evacuation in the event of an emergency.
Should Minimum Seat Dimensions Be Established Aboard Airplanes? Your Input is Requested
This is not the first time that the federal agency has called attention to the minimum size of seats aboard airplanes. “The average distance between rows of seats has dropped from 35 inches before airline deregulation in the 1970s to about 31 inches today. The average width of an airline seat has also shrunk from 18 inches to about 16½.” That was the rationale behind the Seat Egress in Air Travel — or SEAT — Act which was introduced to direct the Federal Aviation Administration to establish minimum seat size standards for the safety and health of airline passengers…
The House of Representatives of the United States directed the Federal Aviation Administration to issue such rules for minimum dimensions for passenger seats that are necessary for passenger safety back in 2018 once the notice and comment periods had been completed.
The results of simulated emergency evacuations which were conducted by the federal agency are in this report which is dated Thursday, March 31, 2022 and is available for review by the public. Despite that report not finding any major issues pertaining to the shrinking of seat sizes and decreasing of leg room over the years, the Federal Aviation Administration is still required to open the report to public scrutiny and comment for a period of 90 days.
Members of the public are invited to comment on the proposal until Tuesday, November 1, 2022.
Considering the existing regulatory requirements, comments should address whether one or more of the following seat dimensions have — or demonstrably could — adversely affect the safety of air passengers by delaying the group egress time of an emergency evacuation:
- Seat width
- Seat pitch
- Seat length
- Other seat dimensions
A minimum of 9,406 comments have already been submitted at the time this article was written.
Final Boarding Call
What is important to note is that the establishment of minimum dimensions for the size of seats and associated leg room aboard airplanes is primarily for reasons of safety and not necessarily of comfort.
As for egress time from an airplane, I may not be an expert on safety — but might I submit that passengers who are unaware of the danger of taking a moment to retrieve their belongings during an emergency is more of a problem that the size and leg room of a seat?
That question should not be misconstrued to assume that I am against increasing the dimensions of the size of seats and leg room aboard airplanes. Who would not want that?
Other articles which have been written and published at The Gate pertaining to evacuation from airplanes include:
- Should Passengers Who Evacuate With Baggage Be Fined?
- 5 Reasons Never to Evacuate an Airplane With Your Belongings
- Why Do Passengers Grab Baggage Before Evacuating an Airplane?
- 3 Reasons Why Items Should Not Be Stowed in the Seat Back Pocket Aboard an Airplane
- Want to Be a Flight Attendant? Read This First…
- Videos: Passengers Evacuated With Belongings After Bird Strike Disables Airplane and Causes Fire
- Breaking News: FlyerTalk Member Witnesses Aircraft Accident Live in Philadelphia
All photographs ©2016, ©2017, and ©2021 by Brian Cohen.
