FAA to test whether packed planes affect evacuation time

The size of your seat and how much legroom you'll get on a future flight could be decided by 720 Oklahomans taking part in a first-of-its-kind test to determine if jam-packed planes slow emergency evacuations.

Frequent flyers on U.S. airlines are well aware cramped economy cabins are detrimental to comfort. But federal officials who write airline safety rules have never tested whether smaller seats or tightly packed rows have any effect on evacuation time.

Beginning next month, FAA researchers will recruit people from churches, universities and online to come up with a test group similar to the overall U.S. population. Sixty at a time, they will be seated in a simulator laid out like a Boeing 737 or an Airbus A320.

Flight attendants will then tell them to get out.