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Coloured Stripes On The Edges Of Doors
WHY ARE
THERE COLOURED STRIPES ON THE EDGES OF DOORS AND EMERGENCY EXITS?
By Airline Ratings
A number of serious accidents early in the Jet Age brought about noticeable changes in aircraft color scheme design.
Lives were lost in these
accidents when emergency rescue crews outside the airplane were unable to
quickly locate aircraft doors and window exits in thick smoke or darkness after
a crash.
Reacting to this problem, the
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) enacted a ruling in 1965 that all
commercial aircraft must have passenger doors, crew and service doors, and
emergency exits identified with a two-inch-wide stripe of color on the
periphery that contrasted with the surrounding color on the aircraft’s fuselage
or window stripe.
First
iterations of these markings looked rather jarring with solid-black stripes
surrounding boarding doors and overwing emergency exits on brightly colored
1960’s airline markings that were never intended to have black stripes as
integral parts of their design.
Today, designers of airliner
markings have nicely integrated these mandatory stripes into the overall color
scheme motif with much more subtle coloration.
Additionally, high-contrast
walkways complete with bold directional arrows are painted on an airliner’s
upper wings directly below emergency exits to help guide passengers safely out
of harm’s way during an emergency ground evacuation.
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