Sec. 25.809 - Emergency exit arrangement.

(a) Each emergency exit, including a flight crew emergency exit, must be a movable door or hatch in the external walls of the fuselage, allowing unobstructed opening to the outside.

(b) Each emergency exit must be openable from the inside and the outside except that sliding window emergency exits in the flight crew area need not be openable from the outside if other approved exits are convenient and readily accessible to the flight crew area. Each emergency exit must be capable of being opened, when there is no fuselage deformation --

(1) With the airplane in the normal ground attitude and in each of the attitudes corresponding to collapse of one or more legs of the landing gear; and

(2) Within 10 seconds measured from the time when the opening means is actuated to the time when the exit is fully opened.

(c) The means of opening emergency exits must be simple and obvious and may not require exceptional effort. Internal exit-opening means involving sequence operations (such as operation of two handles or latches or the release of safety catches) may be used for flight crew emergency exits if it can be reasonably established that these means are simple and obvious to crewmembers trained in their use.

(d) If a single power-boost or single power-operated system is the primary system for operating more than one exit in an emergency, each exit must be capable of meeting the requirements of paragraph (b) of this section in the event of failure of the primary system. Manual operation of the exit (after failure of the primary system) is acceptable.

(e) Each emergency exit must be shown by tests, or by a combination of analysis and tests, to meet the requirements of paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section.

(f) There must be a means to lock each emergency exit and to safeguard against its opening in flight, either inadvertently by persons or as a result of mechanical failure. In addition, there must be a means for direct visual inspection of the locking mechanism by crewmembers to determine that each emergency exit, for which the initial opening movement is outward, is fully locked.

(g) There must be provisions to minimize the probability of jamming of the emergency exits resulting from fuselage deformation in a minor crash landing.

(h) When required by the operating rules for any large passenger-carrying turbojet-powered airplane, each ventral exit and tailcone exit must be --

(1) Designed and constructed so that it cannot be opened during flight; and

(2) Marked with a placard readable from a distance of 30 inches and installed at a conspicuous location near the means of opening the exit, stating that the exit has been designed and constructed so that it cannot be opened during flight.

[Doc. No. 5066, 29 FR 18291, Dec. 24, 1964, as amended by Amdt. 25-15, 32 FR 13264, Sept. 20, 1967; Amdt. 25-32, 37 FR 3970, Feb. 24, 1972; Amdt. 25-34, 37 FR 25355, Nov. 30, 1972; Amdt. 25-46, 43 FR 50597, Oct. 30, 1978; Amdt. 25-47, 44 FR 61325, Oct. 25, 1979; Amdt. 25-72, 55 FR 29782, July 20, 1990]