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One man broke his leg and 32 other people suffered minor injuries Sunday during an evacuation test for the new Airbus A380 superjumbo jet.
The test took place in a hangar at its Hamburg site in Germany under supervision of the European certification authority and in the presence of a representative from the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority, as it is part of the certification procedure.
One man broke his leg and 32 people suffered minor friction burns and other injuries during an exercise in which 853 people and 20 crew members practiced the emergency drill.
These drills are standard practice in the aerospace industry as the airplane manufacturers strive to meet international safety regulations.
The double-deck A380 can hold as many 873 people, including crew. It will be the world's largest passenger model when it begins commercial service.
The test was aimed at evacuating the plane within 90 second by using only half of the 16 doors.
Despite the injuries, Airbus said the plane passed its test, with everybody out of the airplane in about 80 seconds. The European Aviation Safety Agency will confirm the test results this week.
Airbus had said that bringing 650 people out of the plane within 90 seconds would have been sufficient to meet safety requirements.
"That was a very great success," Airbus manager Gustav Humbert said after the test at its factory in the north German city of Hamburg.
(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2006)
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