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CS 25.809 Emergency exit arrangement

Large Aeroplanes (CS-25) · CS-25 · EAR revision 26 Jan 2023

IRImplementing rule

CS 25.809Emergency exit arrangement

(See AMC 25.809)

(a)(1) Each emergency exit, including a flight crew emergency exit, must be a movable door or hatch in the external walls of the fuselage, allowing unobstructed opening to the outside.

(2)Each emergency exit, including a flight crew emergency exit, must have means to permit viewing of the conditions outside the exit when the exit is closed, in all ambient lighting conditions with the landing gears extended or in any condition of collapse. The viewing means may be on or adjacent to the exit provided no obstructions exist between the exit and the viewing means. (See AMC 25.809(a))

(3)For non-over-wing passenger emergency exits, a means must also be provided to permit viewing of the likely areas of evacuee ground contact when the exit is closed with the landing gears extended or in any condition of collapse. Furthermore, the likely areas of evacuee ground contact must be viewable with the exit closed during all ambient lighting conditions when all landing gears are extended.

(b)Each emergency exit must be openable from the inside and the outside except that sliding window emergency exits in the flight crew area need not be openable from the outside if other approved exits are convenient and readily accessible to the flight crew area. Inward opening doors may be used if there are means to prevent occupants from crowding against the door to an extent that would interfere with the opening of the door. Each emergency exit must be capable of being opened, when there is no fuselage deformation –

(1)With the aeroplane in the normal ground attitude and in each of the attitudes corresponding to collapse of one or more legs of the landing gear; and

(2)Within 10 seconds measured from the time when the opening means is actuated to the time when the exit is fully opened.

(3)Even though persons may be crowded against the door on the inside of the aeroplane.

(c)The means of opening emergency exits must be simple and obvious and may not require exceptional effort; and must be arranged and marked so that it can be readily located and operated, even in darkness. Internal exit opening means involving sequence operations (such as operation of two handles or latches or the release of safety catches) may be used for flight crew emergency exits if it can be reasonably established that these means are simple and obvious to crewmembers trained in their use.

(d)If a single power-boost or single power-operated system is the primary system for operating more than one exit in an emergency, each exit must be capable of meeting the requirements of sub-paragraph (b) of this paragraph in the event of failure of the primary system. Manual operation of the exit (after failure of the primary system) is acceptable.

(e)Each emergency exit must be shown by tests, or by a combination of analysis and tests, to meet the requirements of sub-paragraphs (b) and (c) of this paragraph.

(f)Each door must be located where persons using them will not be endangered by the propellers when appropriate operating procedures are used.

(g)There must be provisions to minimise the probability of jamming of the emergency exits resulting from fuselage deformation in a minor crash landing.

(h)[Reserved]

(i)Each emergency exit must have a means to retain the exit in the open position, once the exit is opened in an emergency. The means must not require separate action to engage when the exit is opened, and must require positive action to disengage.

[Amdt 25/4]

[Amdt 25/12]

[Amdt 25/14]

[Amdt 25/17]

IR · CS 25.809 — CS-25 · ED Decision 2015/019/R · CS-25 Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 26 Jan 2023

AMCAcceptable means of compliance

AMC 25.809Emergency exit arrangement

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The relevant parts of FAA Advisory Circular (AC) 25-17A Change 1, Transport Airplane Cabin Interiors Crashworthiness Handbook, dated 24.5.2016, are accepted by the Agency as providing an acceptable means of compliance with CS 25.809. Note: ‘The relevant parts’ means ‘the parts of AC 25-17A Change 1 that address the applicable FAR/CS-25 paragraph’.

[Amdt 25/12]

[Amdt 25/17]

[Amdt 25/26]

AMC · AMC 25.809 — CS-25 · ED Decision 2020/024/R · CS-25 Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 26 Jan 2023

AMCAcceptable means of compliance

AMC 25.809(a)Emergency exit outside viewing

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The requirement to provide a view of the outside in all ambient lighting conditions suggests the use of externally mounted lighting (although other means may be acceptable). In the landing-gear-collapsed cases, the rolling and pitching effects on the fuselage may redirect a fixed lamp’s beam away from the area illuminated in the all-landing-gears-extended condition. Furthermore, in the case of inflatable escape slides, the toe-end ground contact point will probably move in the opposite direction to that of the lamp beam. In recognition of these effects, and in order to maintain reasonable demands on the complexity and power of external lighting equipment, the rule does not require the entire viewable area to be visible in all ambient lighting conditions. The only specific illumination requirement is for the likely areas of evacuee ground contact, with all landing gears extended, for passenger exits. However, it is recommended that as large a field of view as is practicable should be provided, taking into account aspects such as fuselage curvature and door/window/hatch location, in order to provide the best chance to identify external evacuation hazards before exits are opened. In the case of a flight crew emergency exit, a flight deck window as conventionally configured, used in conjunction with a suitably accessible and powerful portable illumination device (e.g. flashlight) will provide an acceptable means for viewing the outside conditions. Flight deck seats, consoles, etc., as conventionally configured, are not considered to be obstructions in the meaning of this term in CS 25.809(a)(2) in the case where flight deck windows are the viewing means and the exit is an overhead hatch. Furthermore, it is considered that the distance between flight deck windows, as conventionally configured, and an overhead hatch is such that the criterion for the viewing means to be adjacent to the exit is satisfied.

[Amdt 25/17]

AMC · AMC 25.809(a) — CS-25 · ED Decision 2015/019/R · CS-25 Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 26 Jan 2023

AMCAcceptable means of compliance

AMC 25.809(a)(3)Emergency exit arrangement

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A subjective outside viewing test can be conducted to determine if the exterior viewing means and lighting system provide an adequate view/illumination to allow identification of possible hazards in the evacuee ground contact area. For this test, the viewing/lighting system will be deemed acceptable if an object (e.g., a traffic cone) placed in the viewing area is visible to the test witness looking through the emergency exit viewing means that is provided. When a separate lighting system is installed that is only used to meet the requirements of CS 25.809(a), that system should be designed to meet the requirements of CS 25.812(k), for operation after having been subjected to the inertia forces listed in CS 25.561(b), and CS 25.812(l)(3), such that at least one exterior light on each side of the airplane remains operative after a single transverse separation.

[Amdt 25/12]

AMC · AMC 25.809(a)(3) — CS-25 · ED Decision 2012/008/R · CS-25 Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 26 Jan 2023

AMCAcceptable means of compliance

AMC 25.809(c)and (e) Testing of the opening of passengeroperated exits

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For emergency exits intended to be operated by passengers, such as non-floor-level overwing exits (e.g. Type III and IV exits), testing with naïve subjects should be performed in order to demonstrate that opening the emergency exits is simple and obvious and does not require exceptional effort. The demonstration may be conducted either on the aeroplane or on a representative mock-up, and it should include all the relevant safety markings and exit opening instructions. The opening of the emergency exit should be demonstrated by a sufficient number of naïve test subjects selected to be representative of the passenger population with respect to gender, age, size and handedness. Meeting the criteria of paragraph (h) of Appendix J to CS-25 is an acceptable means to achieve a representative age and gender distribution of the participants in the test.

[Amdt 25/26]

AMC · AMC 25.809(c) — CS-25 · ED Decision 2020/024/R · CS-25 Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 26 Jan 2023

All rules in SUBPART D – DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

Consolidated from the EASA Easy Access Rules (revision 26 Jan 2023, extracted 17 Aug 2026) for convenience. Not the official publication — verify against the Official Journal of the European Union and the EASA publications before operational use.

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