Getting out of a plane? Not so fast

On every airline flight, a crew member talks to passengers in the exit rows to see whether they can, as Federal Aviation Administration regulations specify, “pass expeditiously through the emergency exit” if needed.

Given how passengers have grown in inverse proportion to the spaciousness of airliner seats, anything like “expeditious” evacuation of an entire airliner seems doubtful.

The standard economy seat is 17 inches wide, down from the 18.5 inches of a decade ago, according to FlyersRights.org, a consumer advocacy group. The standard American male is now more than 195 pounds, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, a nearly 10 percent increase over the past 20 years.

Since most airlines charge $25 for checking a bag — oops, United and JetBlue just raised it to $30 — those heftier passengers are also lugging a lot more stuff onboard, along with comfort dogs, cats and cockatoos. It’s a zoo up there.

Under such constraints, can today’s jets be evacuated in the 90 seconds mandated by the FAA? Not according to passenger advocacy groups like Flyers Rights, which has repeatedly and unsuccessfully petitioned the FAA to use its rule-making authority to stop airlines from shrinking seats and passenger space. Not according to Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Rick Larsen, D-Wash., who have asked the Transportation Department’s inspector general to investigate FAA safety standards that haven’t been updated in decades.

Incredibly, it will require an act of Congress to ensure the FAA acts, because the agency has denied that seat sizes and body mass index are factors in emergencies. The agency has even denied it has the authority to regulate airliner seat size.

“The FAA has no evidence that a typical passenger, even a larger one, will take more than a couple of seconds to get out of his or her seat,” the agency stated to Flyers Rights in refusing that organization’s stop-the-shrink petition.

There’s no evidence of anything, though. Airliner makers consider evacuation drill footage to be proprietary, and the FAA agrees. Not that it matters. The industry now relies on computer simulations of emergency situations to model behavior. The Airbus A321 and some versions of Boeing’s popular 737 have never run evacuation tests. The Boeing 757 was last tested in 1982.

That’s dangerous and potentially lethal. In the most recent real emergency evacuations, including one at Chicago O’Hare in 2016 that was clocked at 2 minutes, 21 seconds, it’s apparent that passengers aren’t as quickthinking as the jet makers would have them. Some tried to retrieve their belongings from the overhead bins; others started shooting video with their cellphones — suboptimal behavior in an evacuation situation.

The evolution of “thin” seating, which requires less padding and framing, has allowed airlines to add even more seats. American’s new 737 Max jet has 172 seats compared with 150 for earlier 737s.

The carriers argue that the marketplace should decide minimum seat size, not the government, an argument that takes off from specious and lands at ludicrous. Four domestic carriers rule about 70 percent of the market. They are not moved by market forces because they are the market. United, Southwest, Delta and American are more motivated by Wall Street, whose executives fly in private jets or in business class and don’t tolerate profit-trimming niceties.

Carriers will always put profit over passenger needs until Congress compels the FAA to act on our behalf instead of the airlines’. With the FAA’s mandate to collect taxes on airline tickets up for reauthorization this month, this is a perfect opportunity to pass a bill that enhances passenger safety and comfort.

Both the Senate and House versions of a reauthorization bill order the FAA to regulate the minimum seat size and seat pitch as it relates to safety.

The House measure — the better choice in our view — then orders the FAA to issue regulations on minimum seat size. Congress should also require that the agency get updated tests on airline evacuations to ensure that cramped cabins are not death traps.