B777 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness; Time Pressure; Physiological - Other; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Environment - Non Weather Related; Company Policy; Airport; Procedure
We parked at Gate coming in from a foreign [airport]. Because it was a foreign arrival; we needed to clear customs. As a result; the disembarking passengers are rerouted up an escalator to the roof of the terminal where the buses transport to the customs area. The MAJOR problem with this is that the waiting pad at the top of the escalator is only roughly 30x30 in size! FAR too small to hold an entire load of passengers!The waiting pad at the top filled up and the escalator became clogged with people. So much so that the the folks on the escalator had no where to go as they reached the top. Despite much screaming by the folks on the escalator to the passengers on the pad to move forward; there was tripping and falling as folks reached the top of the escalator. Luckily no one fell onto to the moving steel steps or; worse yet; backwards down the escalator!Of course; this was a failure by our agents who did nothing to control the flow of the folks onto the escalator at the bottom; however; this set up is really dangerous enough that there needs to be an automated safety mechanism of some kind. Possibly an occupancy sensor of some kind could be installed at the top to stop the escalator before the pad at the top is totally full?
After arrival at HNL; international arriving passenger exit to Customs on buses after ascending an escalator to a 30' X 30' waiting pad. Too many people were on the pad but the escalator continued delivering people who had no where to go and no available escalator shutoff.