The congressional bill aims to address cramped flying conditions

• Passengers’ dissatisfaction with cramped plane seats is growing as planes pack in more seats.
• The EVAC Act, sponsored by consultants Baldwin and Duckworth, aims to make aircraft more accessible and safer.
• The bill urges the FAA to consider factors such as disability or age when writing evacuation guidelines.

It’s no secret that most people who fly hate their seats, which are small and cramped. But sitting on an airplane isn’t just uncomfortable — it can be unsafe for some. A new bill passing through Congress aims to address aircraft safety for people with disabilities or other restrictions that could make evacuation difficult.

With travel rates steadily returning to pre-pandemic levels, airlines are scrambling to pick up lost profits and get more people on planes, even looking for models to suggest that.Double-deck airplane seats – a lot to Dissatisfaction with coach travels.

According to a new report from The Wall Street JournalIn 2022, the FAA is asking for public opinion on whether or not seat size on planes causes safety issues — and to more than 26,000 public commentators, they do.

“I think a lot of the behavior of airline passengers is at least in part due to overcrowding on planes. And when people are so crowded that they can’t move comfortably without bumping into or disturbing someone else, they get tense and angry,” one commenter wrote to management. Federal Aviation. “I’m old and can’t travel anymore unless I pay extra for extra seat space. Nobody likes this situation except airline shareholders.”

Other contributions drew attention to the possibility of hip or knee injuries due to the lack of space between the seats. Height and weight have also been mentioned by many as factors that make flying uncomfortable.

I’m 6’5″ 320 lbs. Man… after most of the flights I take, my knees are in a great deal of pain,” another submission reads. Being a huge person made moving around the cabin difficult. In an emergency, it would be very difficult for me to maneuver out of my seat and out of the way until my fellow passengers had reached safety.”

Now, Congress is trying to address potential safety risks with the Emergency Aircraft Cabin Evacuation Act, or the EVAC Act.

In May, US Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Tammy Duckworth reintroduced the bill, which was initially introduced in December 2022. It urges the FAA to “do a better job of taking real-life conditions into account to ensure all types of passengers can be safely evacuated in an emergency.”, Requesting the agency to update evacuation criteria to account for passengers with disabilities, of varying heights and weights, and the aircraft seat size and configuration, among other things.

Current FAA standards state that passengers must be able to evacuate an aircraft within 90 seconds in the event of an emergency, but the bill’s authors say all of the people tested for this guideline were all adults under the age of 60. In small groups rather than considering some planes can carry more than 200 passengers.

The FAA has yet to investigate potential complications caused by people trying to evacuate with hand luggage, though the National Transportation Safety Board. proposal to do soaccording to the bill.

In addition to addressing such issues, airlines have also been under pressure such as High costs of retaining pilotsAccording to a report from Reuters.

Airplane seat size has long been a controversial issue, with online “travel scams” claiming to help passengers get more space for themselves on planes, such as reserving aisle and window seats respectively in the hope that not a single passenger will occupy the middle seat and raise the armrests in the aisle. Research airline seat sizes before booking.

In March, a TikTok user sparked controversy when he suggested “First class poorThe trick: Have passengers book an entire row of refundable seats and then cancel tickets close to boarding time to sit in a row with them.

Representatives for Baldwin, Duckworth and the FAA did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment, which was sent outside of normal business hours.