AMC to Appendix S, S25.30(a) Width of Aisle

ED Decision 2017/015/R

For compliance with the ‘Width of Aisle’ requirement, the following applies:

(1)      An obstacle in the passageway is considered easily surmountable if the aisle width reduction it creates may be negotiated by a person anywhere in the size range from 5th percentile female to a 95th percentile male.

(2)      Negotiating of an obstacle may require the removal and/or movement of more than one item.

(3)     If an obstacle is stepped on, it should be capable of withstanding without failure a vertical step force of 222 daN (500 lbs) applied at the most adverse stepping location, without failure to the extent that it could unsteady a person trying to surmount that obstacle.

(4)      When assessing compliance, the applicant should select the most adverse in-flight configuration(s). The selection should include all possibilities regardless of subjective issues, such as the likelihood that passengers may consider the configuration advantageous. If however, an applicant feels that one or more configurations, although possible, would only result from severely anomalous behaviour by cabin occupants, it/they may be justified for elimination from the assessment. The configuration(s) should be highlighted and their elimination justified in the assessment report, for Agency agreement. The possibility of entrapment (e.g. feet, hands etc.) during negotiating of the obstacle should be included in the assessment and selection of adverse in-flight configurations. Maintaining gaps of less than 3.5 cm (1.38 in.) is considered acceptable to eliminate the risk of entrapment. Items such as drawers or stowage doors do not need to be considered opened in the aisle. Each interior door may be considered open unless another position of the door might interact with the movement of an obstacle out of the aisle. In that case, all possible interactions between the door and the obstacle should be assessed. In general, items need only be considered in their most adverse detent or locked position.

(5)     For the purpose of showing compliance, the applicant may use tests, analyses supported by test data, or, where appropriate, inspections.

(6)     In principle, the total time required for a crew member to travel from the forwardmost point in the cabin to the rearmost point, with all aisle obstacles in their most adverse positions, should not exceed by more than 30 seconds the time it would take without the obstacles in place. However, the cabin may be divided into zones, provided that each zone includes the quantity and type of emergency equipment adequate for firefighting, and that it can be substantiated that at least one cabin crew member is likely to occupy that zone during the majority of the flight. It should be shown that the time required for a cabin crew member to travel from the forwardmost point to the rearmost point of each zone, with all aisle obstacles in their most adverse positions, will not exceed by more than 30 seconds the time it would take without the obstacles in place.

(7)      If an unobstructed passageway exists as an alternative to the obstructed one (e.g. aeroplanes with two aisles), it may be acceptable for this alternative route to be used when showing compliance. Such acceptability will depend on a case-by-case assessment of the degree to which such an alternative route would be obvious to the crew member.

Note: interior doors are not addressed by the requirements of S25.30(a) but rather by the requirements of S25.10(a) and (b).

[Amdt 25/19]