Do pilots have an escape hatch? How they escape in an emergency

Captain David Morgan explains how pilots escape a 787 Dreamliner during an emergency.

One rarely has a chance to enter the cockpit of an Air New Zealand 787 Dreamliner, but if they do they’ll quickly see a dizzying number of buttons, switches, navigation screens and meters.

What you may never notice is a panel bolted to the wall behind one of the pilots’ seats with a small lever inside it; a lever every pilot hopes they never have to use.

On top of the panel is a sign that reads “STEP” followed by “emergency use only”. It seems misplaced, given the slim panel is flush against the wall. However, when one pulls a small lever in the centre, a block the size of a smartphone pops out, large enough for someone to fit the ball of their foot.

“I don’t know if you know,” says Captain David Morgan, chief pilot and chief operational integrity and safety officer at Air New Zealand, “but if you can’t get out through that door, because the windows don’t open in this aeroplane, you have to go out through the top”.

If the main door is blocked, pilots must step on the box to the right, then place a foot on the step in the wall and finally exit via the ceiling hatch.

We’re now inside the airline’s brand-new 787 Cabin Emergency Evacuation Trainer (CEET) device. The device may not be a real aircraft, but has all the small details perfectly, especially the emergency features.

While passengers are ushered out of an aircraft through the main doors, there is always a chance the door to the flight deck becomes obstructed, so pilots have an additional emergency exit.

In some planes, pilots can roll back the windows but in a 787, they escape through a hatch in the ceiling.

Reaching the hatch requires a kind of parkour, where pilots place one foot on a storage compartment behind the pilot seats, then another on the small pop-out step in the wall before hoisting themselves through a compartment in the ceiling.

“You climb up on this, climb up on that step,” Captain Morgan explains, “then open this thing up and then … gone,” he adds, pointing to the emergency escape hatch in the ceiling.

On social media, an aircraft maintenance technician in the US shared what it looks like to use the escape route.

@stigaviation

B787 escape hatch. #aircraft #aviation #avgeek #boeing #787dreamliner #escape #hatch #emergency #PupPeroniShuffle #fyp #fypシ 

♬ original sound - Stig Aviation

The escape route pilots must take does depend on the type of aircraft and in a B777-300, the pilots abseil out through the windows as shown by another clip from Stig Aviation.

On these aircraft, the side windows in the cockpit can be released and wound open using a “roll-up handle”.

“Simply unwind like your 1986 Toyota Carolla,” the man joked from inside an aircraft.

Pilots then grab a set of “safety ropes” and use them to climb out of the aircraft.

@stigaviation

B777-300 flight deck rolldown windows and emergency escape ropes #stigaviation #b777 #b777300er #rolldownyourwindow #window #emergency #emergencyevacuation #emergencyescape #rope #aircraftmechanic #aircraftmaintenance #boeing #tiktoktaughtme #learnontiktok #themoreyouknow #manualwindows

♬ vlog, chill out, calm daily life(1370843) - SUNNY HOOD STUDIO

For those who wonder why the windows don’t open automatically using a button, the technician explained the escape had to be manual.

“What happens when there is an incident and all power goes out?” he said.

“That’s why it’s manual, just for that reason”.