Down the slide

When DFDS did their big spring training exercise in Copenhagen Harbour, it was with students from Cphbusiness in the lifeboats.

As part of the event management class on the AP degree in Service, Hospitality and Tourism Management in Lyngby, students have to learn to work with risk management – including evacuation drills.

This year, they took part in DFDS’s spring training exercise in Copenhagen Harbour, playing various roles.

The crew’s job was to find us aboard the ship and transport everybody across the water to safety on land. Who hasn’t dreamt of going down the emergency slide, when the flight attendant does the pre-flight safety demonstration? Well, they all got to try it aboard the DFDS ship, sliding down five floors to the lifeboats that would take them to shore.

The evacuation was filmed, and afterwards both the crew and the students took part in some very educational debriefings. Based on the feedback from Cphbusiness’ students, DFDS will change three things about their evacuation procedures:

In the future, the crew will instruct the passengers on how to put on their life jackets as well as assist passengers individually, similar to the procedure on air planes.
The ships public address system will be used to ensure that every one onboard has received the same information.

Right before going down the slide, everyone will receive individual instructions on how to do so. The procedure is actually opposite to the one used on most airplanes; the DFDS approach involves keeping ones shoes on, to make it easier to use both arms and legs to break, if needed.