Logical Reasoning

PT9 · S2 · Q10 The number of aircraft collisions

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The number of aircraft collisions on the ground is increasing because of the substantial increase in the number of flights operated by the airlines.

Conclusion (therefore)

The airlines should be required to remove all seats that restrict access to emergency exits to reduce the total number of fatalities from aircraft collisions.

Evidence

The number of aircraft collisions on the ground is increasing due to the substantial increase in the number of flights operated by the airlines.

Many of the fatalities in such collisions are caused by an inherent flaw in cabin design, where seats restrict access to emergency exits and impede escape.

Evaluate

This argument presents a Plan/Goal type of claim:

Goal Reduce the total number of fatalities resulting from aircraft collisions.

Plan Require airlines to remove seats that restrict access to emergency exits.

The task is unusual: what's something we could add to this plan to make it more likely to work? The whole essence of the plan is to get passengers off a fiery plane as quickly as possible so that they don't die on the plane.

Goal

So let's find a proposal that, when implemented together with removing obstructive seats, would further increase the likelihood of reducing fatalities from aircraft collisions.

10.

Which one of the following proposals, if implemented together with the proposal made in the passage, would improve the prospects for achieving the stated objective of reducing fatalities?

The airlines should be required,
No Impact
We don't know how often airlines buy new planes, so it could take a while for this to do anything. But even if we fast forward to the day when all planes have unrestricted access to the emergency exits, how is that better than getting rid of the seats currently blocking the emergency exits? In either case, you have unrestricted access to the exits. So this is a different way to achieve the same outcome of better access to the exits, but it's not combining with the current plan to make it more effective. A better answer should be something we combine with the seat removal plan to get some safety benefit beyond just removing obstacles to the exits.
40% picked this
Correct
The airlines should not be
Why this is right
This plays off an important Breadcrumb detail from the paragraph: collisions have been increasing because of the high number of flights. So if airlines were permitted to increase further their number of flights, that could lead to more collisions, which would offset the improvements we got from having fewer fatalities per collision (due to removing the seats). So this is essentially ruling out an unintended consequence of the Plan that would undermine the Goal (making airlines remove seats could lead to them having more flights, which would lead to more collisions).
Skill tested: Strengthen · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
57% picked this
Airport authorities should be required
No Impact
Requiring airport authorities to streamline check-in procedures addresses the front-end of getting into an airplane. This has nothing to do with helping us believe that more people will be able to escape the airplane in time.
0% picked this
Airport authorities should be required
No Impact
This talks about security precautions, not safety precautions, which is what we care about.
1% picked this
The airlines should not be
No Impact
Restricting airlines from increasing ticket prices to offset the decrease in seating doesn't give us any new reason for thinking that fatalities will be reduced. If anything, raising ticket prices would lead to fewer passengers, which could lead to fewer fatalities. But this is forbidding them from raising prices (this also could indirectly lead to airlines' needing to have more flights to make up for lost revenue, which could lead to more collisions).
1% picked this

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