Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Realistic full-scale fire tests demonstrated the potential safety benefits of advanced interior panels in transport aircraft, and displayed the characteristics of cabin fire hazards. The tests were conducted in a C-133 airplane, modified to resemble a wide-body interior, under postcrash and in-flight fire scenarios. The safety benefit of the advanced panel ranged from a 2-minute delay in the onset of flashover when the cabin fire was initiated by a fuel fire adjacent to a fuselage rupture, t o the elimination of flashover when the fuel fire was adjacent to a door opening or when an in-flight fire was started from a seat drenched in gasoline. Analysis of the cabin hazards measured during postcrash fire tests indicated that the greatest threat to passenger survival was cabin flashover, and that toxic gases did not reach hazardous levels unless flashover occurred.