stockmanjr

Um a plane could go up in flames in the seconds you're grabbing the bag. I would like to say more but afraid of violating the TOS.
Cheers
Howie

dlflyer2

Seconds count.

In this instance, all of the responders said that the immediate evacuation of the aircraft was the key to the lower number of deaths and injury. The goal is to have an aircraft completely evacuated in 90 seconds.

It is selfish to think your things have more value then the lives of others. Then again, we see it everyday.

restonva

I think the SF Mayor announced at the news conference that United would be providing assistance to passengers and their families post-crash.

HawaiiFlyerDC8

I'll bet the US govt has so much info on us that there is no problem in proving who we are. They used to take our fingerprints when we went through customs and there is no chance that they haven't saved those. Big Brother is definitely watching and recording.

tigerhunt2011

I don't and wouldn't value my things over the lives of others. Again, being young and new to flying relative to most of the veterans of flyertalk, I didn't realize that the time window was that small. Simply seeking to inform myself . Thanks all for enlightening me and keeping it relatively nice. Leave the bag, got it

Badenoch

Thanks for the link. I typically wear cargo pants and a shirt with two large buttoned pockets while making long international trips but that Scottvest is appealing. It would be more discrete than regular "travel vests" that make the wearer look like he's a bird watcher gone astray. What's it like in hot weather?

ESpen36

Hahaha! I love the "bird watcher gone astray" line! That's exactly why I have never sprung for one of these vests....I don't like being labeled as a tourist, particularly overseas, and so I steer clear of these kinds of things.

Does anyone have one of these Scottvests? Are they fairly discreet to wear when loaded down with stuff so that you don't feel like a hardware store?

mahohmei

In 2007, I was flying BDL-TPA-TLH, and the first flight was quite late. Due to the handful of passengers making that transfer to the last TPA-TLH flight of the day, the second flight was held while the first flight landed, and they announced for TLH passengers to get off first.

A self-obsessed woman in the aisle in front of me was blocking the aisle while trying to simultaneously talk on her cell phone and remove her bag from the overhead compartment. I squeezed myself around her, and that got the message across that she should hang up and focus on deplaning--she's lucky I didn't use a gym-coach voice to tell her to hang up and move it.

If I was in an emergency airplane evacuation and a fellow pax was blocking the aisle to finish up a phone call or retrieve their bag, I would do something physical to rectify the situation--snatch the phone and toss it, or kick down the passenger and walk over them. As bad as it sounds, if you endanger my life for your own convenience and I have to choose which one of us lives, it'll be me 100% of the time.

ceejay_za

Any solutions for women? I would like to keep passport, cash, and phone close to hand (not just for emergency situations, but also to prevent theft) but it's difficult when you don't have cargo pants or shirt pockets I'd keep them in my jeans pockets, but flying in coach, all that twisting around to get vaguely comfortable would probably result in everything in pockets dropping to the floor at some point during the flight. Money belts are very uncomfortable, and neck pouches - well, I'm afraid I'll strangle myself while trying to sleep

Badenoch

There are quite stylish cargo pants available for women that are often easily convertible to cargo shorts too. If money belts and neck pouches don't work for you I'd suggest a small belt pouch/bum bag worn on your belt.

Another habit I've gotten into is wearing comfortable shoes and not taking them off until the plane reaches altitude and putting them back on when the order is given to raise trays and chair backs.

studentff

Like others here, I (a male) intentionally keep my wallet, ID (passport if international), and phone on my person -- e.g., in a pocket -- for takeoff and landing on every flight. It's just part of my routine, same as counting rows to the nearest exit.

I'm not so much worried about a "real" crash like what happened to OZ214. Even the people who run immigration/customs probably realize that treating the injured in hospitals is more important than verifying their immigration status and rummaging through their physical and electronic items looking for cash, drugs, child porn, etc.

My concern is for the much more frequent precautionary evacuation where you get dumped out onto the tarmac but there's no media, publicity, etc. Your stuff is all fine (but still on the essentially undamaged aircraft), and the people who run immigration/customs decide that you have to sit in a holding area (i.e., aircraft hangar) with limited water/restrooms/food/furniture for 24 or so hours while the airline retrieves your items. (That's about how long the reports usually are for stuff to be returned after an evacuation with zero or minimal damage to the aircraft, such as a belly landing). Hopefully holding a passport would provide some push-back to such detention. I also think that having my own credit card and wallet will get me much further with hotels, other airlines, etc., than whatever charity/sympathy vouchers are provided by the airline for passengers without funds or documents.

If I were carrying any small extremely-high-value stuff (e.g., jewelry), I'd probably put it on my person too. The passengers of OZ214 likely will get their stuff back, if it survived, but it will likely take 6 months to a few years for that to happen. I think that was the timeframe on the US Air flight that went into the Hudson. Even though most of the stuff left behind was fine other than water damage, apparently it was all considered "evidence" by the investigators and held.

I personally think the airlines could do a lot to improve compliance with the common-sense "leave all baggage behind" directive if they made an effort to return people's stuff within an hour or two for precautionary and low-damage evacuations and publicized such efforts, perhaps even with a mention in the safety video.

petaluma1

You're 20 and still in the "I'm invincible" stage of life.

You're holding up the line and putting your life as well as the lives of others behind you at risk. Split seconds can make the different between living and dying.

chgoeditor

David Eun, who was the Samsung exec on the flight whose post-evac photos were used on many newscasts, tweeted this after the flight:

bocastephen

I can give a simple answer based on my experience a couple weeks ago when I had a medical issue at an airport in Canada. Without too much detail, I was temporarily unconscious at the gate and paramedics were called - after coming to, I asked where my passport was (before I dropped, it was in my hand), and low and behold a Canadian immigration inspector was standing behind the gurney holding my passport as the paramedics thought I would re-enter from the pre-clearance area for a hospital trip and called for immigration assistance.

The inspector asked how I entered Canada, I told him I was dual, and he handed me back my passport and left.

In a case like the Asiana crash, I would imagine the first priority would be attending to the injured and immigration would work with the airline to determine who had what citizenship and status, where everyone was and who they needed to visit.

InkUnderNails

As for Scottevest info, there is quite a bit from different reviewers here.