Evacuation on board passenger ships with the use of mobile application

Abstract

Passenger vessels have become larger and larger with time, and some are now able to transport thousands of passengers. Most passengers have no previous experience with evacuations, making the efficient evacuation of these vessels particularly challenging. Therefore, focus needs to be put on developing the technical evacuation systems on board passenger vessels. Today, almost everyone possesses a smartphone that is used daily. The idea with the study is to investigate the need of a mobile application, that provides real-time information and navigational guidance in emergencies. The purpose is to achieve a less stressful and more time efficient evacuation, in which the use of the mobile application reduces the number of casualties. The research was conducted by semi-structured staff interviews and a survey on board a passenger vessel, with the passengers as respondents. The theory consists research from scientific articles about evacuation and human behavior during evacuation. The result of this study proves that it is difficult to navigate onboard for passengers, especially in dark and smoke-filled environments. There is room for improvements of current distress information systems, since they have several flaws. This study was not sufficient enough to fully answer the question about what the different needs are for a mobile application during evacuation. However, the results of this study suggest that a mobile application could be a great help during evacuation and could function as a complement to current evacuation systems.