Lufthansa411 From Germany, joined Jan 2008, 691 posts, RR: 1 Posted (4 years 2 months 3 weeks 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 2940 times:
Quick question that I was hoping someone could help me with. My roommate and I got into an argument about a (supposed) man who stole a 747 escape slide and was chased down by the police using the slide's GPS system. I know that this is complete BS and I wanted to get some figures to back me up.
So, does anyone know the approximate weight of a packed 747 escape slide/raft?
Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood.
TristarSteve From Sweden, joined Nov 2005, 3689 posts, RR: 34 Reply 1, posted (4 years 2 months 3 weeks 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 2936 times:
Well, I have never moved a B747 slide, but have removed and installed many on the Tristar, which has the same sized door, so must be about the same sort.
We never carried them up the steps to the aircraft. They were too heavy, even with four people lifting it. We used a fork lift that put it in the door. Then we used two chocks on the floor and carefully moved the slide up onto the chocks, then at least three of us swivelled it upright. Then we wound the door down until it latched in place. We NEVER lifted it, it was too heavy, and unwieldy .
EMBQA From United States of America, joined Oct 2003, 9286 posts, RR: 13 Reply 2, posted (4 years 2 months 3 weeks 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 2934 times:
Quoting Lufthansa411 (Thread starter): I got into an argument about a (supposed) man who stole a 747 escape slide and was chased down by the police using the slide's GPS system. I know that this is complete BS
It's not a BS story.. but very real, but it was a life raft...
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog"
474218 From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 6340 posts, RR: 10 Reply 3, posted (4 years 2 months 3 weeks 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 2918 times:
Quoting TristarSteve (Reply 1): Well, I have never moved a B747 slide, but have removed and installed many on the Tristar, which has the same sized door, so must be about the same sort.
TriStar double slide for the Type A door weighs 117 lbs.
MarkHKG From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 960 posts, RR: 2 Reply 5, posted (4 years 2 months 3 weeks 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 2823 times:
It's a story that's noted on Snopes, the Urban Legends website:
Not all slide/rafts have ELTs attached to them, but the B-747 slide/rafts do have them as an option. The story in Snopes does make sense because these slide/raft ELTs are automatically activated when they come into contact with water.
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MD11Engineer From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 13334 posts, RR: 64 Reply 6, posted (4 years 2 months 3 weeks 4 days 23 hours ago) and read 2770 times:
B737 and A320 slides can be handled by one person, but we needed two (strong) guys to carry a MD-11 slide pack.
Life rafts are another story. We had some on our 767 freighters for overwater flights. They could be carried by one person like a big gym bag and actually had carrying handles on them.
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