One rarely has a chance to enter the cockpit of an Air New Zealand 787 Dreamliner, but if they do they’ll quickly see a dizzying number of buttons, switches, navigation screens and meters. What you may never notice is a panel bolted to the wall behind one of the pilots’ seats with a small lever inside it; a lever every pilot hopes they never have to use. On top of the panel is a sign that reads “STEP” followed by “emergency use only”.
It seems misplaced, given the slim panel is flush against the wall. However, when one pulls a small lever in the centre, a block the size of a smartphone pops out, large enough for someone to fit the ball of their foot. “I don’t know if you know,” says Captain David Morgan, chief pilot and chief operational integrity and safety officer at Air New Zealand, “but if you can’t get out through that door, because the windows don’t open in this aeroplane, you have to go out through the top”.
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