10 - Safety and Security
WHO SHOULD SIT AT THE EXIT ROW? A HUMAN FACTORS APPROACH TO EMERGENCY EVACUATION PASSENGER SELECTION IN COMMERCIAL AVIATION
A. Reis¹, C. Lessa¹, P. Kurka¹, R. Santos Alencar, ITA , Brazil; M. Machado Cardoso Júnior ¹; ¹ITA, Brazil
Emergency exit row seating allocation represents a critical yet underexamined safety decision in commercial aviation. While regulations establish minimum criteria for passengers occupying these positions, significant gaps exist between regulatory intent and operational practice. This research develops a comprehensive framework for assessing optimal passenger characteristics for emergency exit responsibilities through an evolutionary methodological approach integrating Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA), Event Analysis of Systemic Teamwork (EAST), and Work Domain Analysis (WDA) based on Cognitive Work Analysis principles. Data collection comprised semi-structured interviews with four Brazilian aviation professionals using the Critical Decision Method (CDM) protocol, complemented by documentary analysis of regulatory documents from Brazil (RBAC 121), the United States (FAA 14 CFR § 121.585), and Japan (JCAB regulations), as well as accident investigation reports. HTA decomposed emergency exit operation into 17 discrete task elements, while EAST captured distributed cognition demands across four critical incident narratives. WDA identified six systemic constraints explaining implementation failures, including age contradictions in regulations, commercial prioritization over safety criteria, and the absence of positive selection frameworks. International comparative analysis revealed significant regulatory divergences, with Japan employing objective BMI criteria and explicitly defined vulnerable categories, while Brazil presents vague criteria lacking operational definition. Analysis of the JAL516 successful evacuation (January 2024) demonstrated that crew training and organizational culture were the primary success factors rather than systematic passenger selection. The research proposes evidence-based recommendations including age criteria harmonization, positive selection implementation systems, multi-stage verification protocols, and structural decoupling of emergency seat allocation from commercial revenue systems.
DOI: 10.71945/icas2026_0154