that shapes almost everything about cabin design: ninety seconds. Aircraft must demonstrate that a full load of passengers can evacuate within that time, using only half of the available exits, in the dark. That standard exists because in a serious accident involving fire, survivable conditions inside the cabin can deteriorate fast. Smoke and heat do not wait politely.
Ninety seconds is not a lot of time to move a few hundred strangers, some injured, some frozen, some clutching bags they were told to leave behind. Every design choice in the
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