Surviving Crashes: Seconds Count

The 309 survivors of the Air France crash713614> in Toronto had luck on their side. Everyone on board made it out alive.

And the incident once again put the spotlight on how important it is for passengers to know how to evacuate an airplane.

The Early Show National Correspondent Hattie Kauffman

They're not trying to shave off minutes, but seconds. It can be the difference between life and death.

From the outside, the simulator doesn't look like much, just part of the fuselage of an old jetliner. But inside, it's like being on a real plane. The simulator has actual aircraft seats, and is modeled after a Boeing 737.

In an emergency, experts say, passengers should head to the nearest exit, even if it's behind them.

Inside the simulator, cabin safety researcher David Palmerton, who's with the Federal Aviation Administration's Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, advises locating at least two exits when you find your seat. "Passengers really don't pay attention to exit location," he points out. "Knowing where your nearest exit is, is very important. But also knowing where other exits are is very important, because your nearest exit may not be usable."

In addition, "Counting the seat rows is very important, in the event you had smoke in the cabin.

"Frequent flyers think all airplanes are the same, so they think the exits are in the same location, which they're not. (Different models of aircraft) are really different. A lot of people just don't think airplane accidents are survivable, so they don't think they need to know."

But, he continues, aircraft incidents are "very survivable," if you move fast.The first thing you should know if an aircraft is in trouble, Palmerton advises, is to brace for impact.

You do that by having your seatbelt fastened, "very firmly, to keep you in place in the seat. You want to put your feet back behind your knees, to prevent your feet from flying into the seat in front of you. You want put your hands on the seat in front of you and put your head against your hands. What you're doing is, you're minimizing the distance you travel before you hit the seat in front of you. Because you're going to."

What's more, notes Palmerton, "It's surprising how common it is that people go to get their carry-on luggage, and nothing slows down an evacuation more than people taking the time to get their luggage from the overhead bin."

Another bad idea: women grabbing their pocketbooks. Even though that generally doesn't take long, since most women keep their purses in the pocket on the back of the seat in front of them, Palmerton says that means women would have to go down the emergency evacuation slides with their purse.

Don't worry about all the things you keep in pocketbooks, Palmerton says: You can always get them replaced: "We can't stress enough to leave everything behind and just get up and get out. Because, in a fuel-fed fire situation, when the plane if filling up with smoke, seconds are everything."

To demonstrate, the simulator's smoke-producer was turned on. In 20 seconds, there was almost zero visibility.

"You want to get up, keep your head down" as you go down the aisle, Palmerton says. "Just follow the lights [on the floor]." The tiny lights turn when you get to an exit.

Once you find an exit with a slide set up and the door opened, you approach the exit and remain standing. Don't sit down, as that creates a logjam. Take off high heels. Put your arms out (almost like Superman did in the old TV show), and jump onto the slide into a sitting position with your legs up, then slide down.

Then get away as quickly as possible. Keep alert for emergency vehicles and never go back to the plane, for anything.

Kauffman tested the procedure on the slide, and learned there are some right and wrong things to wear when flying: