  The recent commercial launch of twin-deck Very Large Transport Aircraft
(VLTA) such as the Airbus A380 has raised questions concerning the speed at
which they may be evacuated. The abnormal height of emergency exits on the
upper deck has led to speculation that emotional factors such as fear may lead
to door delay, and thus play a significant role in increasing overall
evacuation time. Full-scale evacuation tests are financially expensive and
potentially hazardous, and systematic studies of the evacuation of VLTA are
rare. Here we present a computationally cheap agent-based framework for the
general simulation of aircraft evacuation, and apply it to the particular case
of the Airbus A380. In particular, we investigate the effect of door delay, and
conclude that even a moderate average delay can lead to evacuation times that
exceed the maximum for safety certification. The model suggests practical ways
to minimise evacuation time, as well as providing a general framework for the
simulation of evacuation.
