Cabin safety and emergency evacuation: passenger experience of flight CI-120 accident.

Aircraft evacuation effectiveness is a critical but challenging issue in the civil aviation industry. This paper explores the cabin safety perceptions of passengers from their emergency evacuation experiences in an actual aviation accident. A questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews were conducted with China Airlines flight CI-120 passengers. The qualitative and quantitative results provide insights into passengers' views of cabin safety. The in-depth interview results show that passenger safety education requires more instructions about the use of emergency equipment. The data from the passenger perception questionnaire were analyzed using the factor analysis method; the findings indicate that crew assistance and emergency procedures are the most important factors. The results are likely to be of value to the aviation industry when taking into account passenger perceptions in implementing safety programs.