Facts in Seventy-Two Seats (七十二個座位)
Source: Jason H. Steffen and Jon Hotchkiss (2012), Experimental test of airplane boarding methods, Journal of Air Transport Management 18(1): 64–67, doi:10.1016/j.jairtraman.2011.10.003. Preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/1108.5211 (HTML: https://ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org/html/1108.5211).
| In the film | Claim | Quoted wording |
|---|---|---|
| 12 rows of 3 + 3 seats, one aisle; 72 passengers (the cabin, the formation of 72 on the apron) | the test cabin and its cast | "The narrow-body mock airplane was used which had 12 rows of six seats with a single, central aisle." · "We employed 72 passengers—volunteers and hollywood extras." |
| 只有一條過道 · 可機艙裡只有一條過道，窄得只夠一個人走 | one aisle, 21 in (53 cm) wide; rows 32 in (0.81 m) apart, the row spacing used in the drawing | "Rows of seats are spaced 32” and the aisle was 21” wide." |
| 後排先上; the gate signs 9–12 排, 1–4 排, 5–8 排; 叫的都是相鄰那幾排 | the block method: four rows per group, back block first, then front, then middle | "The block method divided the 12 rows into three groups of four rows." · "The back four rows were the first group, followed by the front four rows, and finishing with the center four rows." |
| 6:54 · 全部坐滿，足足用了六分五十四秒 | the block method's official time | Table 1, Block, Official: 6:54 |
| 靠窗先上 / 隔開一排 · 讓靠窗的人先上，而且前後兩個人之間，剛好隔開一排; squares 12A 10A 8A 6A 4A 2A … | the Steffen order: window seats first, and people next to each other in line sit two rows apart in corresponding seats (one row between them) | "Adjacent passengers in line are sitting two rows apart from each other in corresponding seats" (the paper's example runs 12F, 10F, 8F, 6F, 4F, 2F; the film starts on the A side, the same pattern) |
| 六個人就能同時在六個不同的排數放箱子 | with that order, the people of one group stow their bags in different rows at the same time | "naturally allowing multiple passengers to stow their luggage simultaneously" · "The separation between adjacent passengers provides some space for each passenger to manipulate their luggage into the bins." |
| 3:36 · 結果全部坐滿，只花了三分三十六秒 | the Steffen order's official time | Table 1, Steffen, Official: 3:36 |
| 足足快了三分多鐘，時間縮短了將近一半; the two bars and the dashed bracket | 414 s − 216 s = 198 s (3 min 18 s); 216 / 414 = 52 %, so 48 % shorter: "nearly half" | arithmetic on the two official times |
| 2012 · 72 名乘客 · 這是2012年，研究人員找來七十二名乘客做過的真實測試 | the year and the cast of the test | published 2012; "We employed 72 passengers" |
Fictional, and not claimed as fact: gate B12 and the 07:10 on its screen, the aircraft, its livery, the terminal, the baggage train. The test was run in a studio mock-up; the film places the same cabin at a made-up gate. No airline name or mark appears. The clock readings during the first boarding before 6:54 illustrate the run and are not measured values; the two compared times are the paper's.