The conference aims to inform the international aviation community about recent, ongoing, and planned research in transport category airplane fire and cabin safety. The conference is jointly sponsored by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the National Civil Aviation Agency – Brazil (ANAC), the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA), and the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB).
The Cabin Safety Evacuation and Operational Issues sessions of the conference will comprise studies related to in-flight safety, and crash/post-crash survivability. Traditionally, research topics have included exit and escape slide performance, aircraft interior arrangements, water survival equipment standards, cabin crew procedures, passenger education, and evacuation computer modelling, presented by researchers from around the world.
The crash dynamics sessions will include studies focusing on aircraft-level crash impact performance, as well as studies that address new and emerging occupant injury criteria. These sessions will also include studies regarding the use of analytical modeling in various aspects of occupant protection, particularly where gathering statistically meaningful empirical data is difficult. Previous conference sessions have addressed ditching behavior, energy absorption characteristics of nonmetallic materials, and human tolerance to high levels of lateral loading, among many others.
The fire safety sessions will include presentations on research in lithium battery fire hazards and mitigation, engine/powerplant fire protection, cabin/cockpit fires, heat flux influence in flammability tests, cargo fire protection, and advanced fire research. Previous conference sessions have addressed battery fires, development of new test methods for Appendix F, fire research projects in Europe, full-scale lithium battery testing, fire research materials and characterization.
Conference registration is free and is open to anyone with an interest in aircraft fire and cabin safety research. Past attendees have included aviation safety professionals in the areas of engineering, design, operations, maintenance, and research. Attendance at this year’s conference is expected to reach 600-700.
