Emergency Exit Seating Requirements
The following requirements were created for the safety of everyone onboard our aircraft, and in compliance with Federal Aviation Regulations.
Federal regulations require that a Customer select a non-exit seat if he or she cannot or does not wish to perform the following functions:
- Locate the emergency exit
- Recognize the emergency exit opening mechanism
- Comprehend the instructions for operating the emergency exit
- Operate the emergency exit
- Assess whether opening the emergency exit will increase the hazards to which passengers may be exposed
- Follow oral directions and hand signals given by a crewmember
- Secure the emergency exit window so that it will not impede use of the exit
- Pass expeditiously through the emergency exit
- Assess, select, and follow a safe path away from the emergency exit
- Reach upward, sideways, and downward to the location of emergency exit
- Grasp and push, pull, turn, or otherwise manipulate mechanisms
- Push, shove, pull or otherwise open the emergency exit
- Lift out, hold, deposit on nearby seats, or maneuver over the seatbacks to the next row or out the opening objects the size and weight of overwing window exit doors.
- Remove objects similar in size and weight to overwing exit windows
- Reach the emergency exit expeditiously
- Maintain balance while removing obstructions
- Exit expeditiously
A passenger seated in an exit seat must:
- be 15 years of age or older
- have the capacity to perform the applicable functions without the assistance of an adult companion, parent, or other relative
- have the ability to read and understand instructions related to emergency evacuation provided by Southwest in printed or graphic form
- have the ability to understand oral crew commands
- have sufficient visual capacity to perform applicable functions without the assistance of visual aids beyond contact lenses or eyeglasses
- have sufficient aural capacity to hear and understand instructions shouted by Flight Attendants without assistance beyond a hearing aid
- have the ability to adequately impart information orally to other passengers
A passenger seated in an exit seat must not:
- have preboarded
- use a portable oxygen concentrator
- require a seat belt extension to fasten his or her seat belt
- have a condition or responsibilities, such as caring for small children, that might prevent them from performing the applicable functions
- have a condition that might cause the person harm if he or she performs one or more of the applicable functions
