Majuki

I'm willing to give people the benefit of the doubt in these situations. Emotions are charged and adrenaline is flowing, so it's likely many of those who grabbed their bags were not thinking about their actions at the moment. Some may have had medications in their personal belongings that might not be immediately available. Others just do what they'd do in a normal evacuation of a building and grab their purse, backpack, or briefcase.

GEXPO

You're more generous than I am. I think we've seen enough incidents like these to argue it's symptomatic of a lack of emphasis by flight crews to instruct passengers to leave stuff behind. A backpack, fine. A purse, fine. Two big bags like the woman in one of early pictures, or the kids each with backpacks is a conscious, life-endangering decision. Also hard for me to comprehend why so many people seem to react in the same way, by grabbing their bags.

Flyer78

Perhaps they should add (back) "in the event of evacuation, leave all personal belongings behind" (or similar). I know it is (or at least was) on the safety card; but that reminder may be a good step.

pa3lsvt

Even if there wasn't a specific example, do you agree that minimizing evac time is a key measure of effectiveness of aircraft evacuation? And that taking anything at all besides your person can only increase evac time?

I'm pretty sure I saw an Air Disasters that showed an incident where only some of the pax escaped before being overcome by smoke in a fire situation. I can't say that grabbing carry-ons was the cause there, but it illustrates that seconds do matter in such a situation.

I'm not sure what I would do in that situation, but I'm pretty sure that anyone reaching into the overhead would get a two-handed shove towards the doors from me or I would just bypass them if possible in the effort to save my skin.

This is especially true here since the pax in this incident thought the aircraft was on fire.

heyeaglefn

I was asking more about people grabbing backpacks under their seats, not opening overhead bins.

Majuki

While I haven't been in an aircraft evacuation, I was in a nearly fatal car crash about a decade ago. After the car stopped, the driver's side door got jammed shut, and I panicked and climbed out the rear passenger door even though this car had a bench front seat, and the passenger side was fine. I don't know what else could have been going through my mind other than problem = driver's side door, so opposite end of the car = no problem.

The accident happened at night, and I ended up about a quarter of the mile off of a 2-lane county road in a bare field in the middle of the night. I wasn't even sure the way the road was whereas a bystander would have just thought to walk the opposite direction of the way the car was facing.

Finally, I was trying to flag down people passing by to use their phones thinking mine was still in the car. After no friends and family were answering, I assumed it was because of the unfamiliar number. I ended up running back to the car with the paramedics to search for the phone, not realizing it was in my pocket the whole time.

The point of this story is that in these situations many people cease to think logically. While you think people carrying their suitcases is a willfully selfish and negligent act, I contend that many of these people rationalize these actions under duress without thinking.

pa3lsvt

And some of the pax on US1702 had two bags with them after evac - clearly had to get something from the overhead. That's what burns me up, and as a PHL based traveler this hits home and makes it easier to imagine myself in their shoes.

I see your point heyeaglefn (and previous posters have mentioned the "a small bag, fine; a purse, fine" to which I agree somewhat given the medicine argument - as long as it doesn't delay evac), but the direction from the flight crew is "LEAVE EVERYTHING BEHIND!!!" and they are trained to yell that at pax during an evac. I'm doing just that if this ever happens to me. I don't have anything in my bags that I'm willing to risk anyone's life over.

lizs

Just one part of the report but still, LOL. . I agree that in the heat of the moment many people panic. It's very, very hard to say what you would do in a situation like that until you've been in it. I definitely will not blame the kids for grabbing their backpacks and running - maybe they were unaccompanied minors, regardless people should be directing the kids what to do. Seeing those kids is the scary part, thinking about them if this hadn't ended in a good result.

“One over-wing exit of a narrow-body airplane was blocked because a large passenger was carrying a bag, and the combination of the bag and body size caused the passenger to become stuck in the open hatch. Initially the passenger would not let go of the bag. A flight attendant on the wing was able to get this passenger out the exit; [and,]

f0xx

I have to admit. As I flying through the report, it was the first thing I seen and almost choked on my coffee.

Thumper

In a notebook in the basement of the airport is a situational model of the blast range of a fully fueled and loaded craft of this make and model. The terminal fell in the shrapnel zone and was evacuated.

FWAAA

For everyone who is ready to issue life without parole to the "selfish" passengers who took their carryons and/or personal items with them, relax. This plane wasn't on fire, and nobody died or was even injured because of their selfishness. It might have mattered if things had turned out differently, but it this crash landing, it didn't make a difference.

In the OZ crash last July, that plane did in fact burn up and many passengers were shown carrying their carryon/personal items. While there were deaths in that crash, none of those deaths resulted from the selfish passenger behavior.

This may be a good example of "if you haven't experienced it yourself (surviving a crash landing and rushed evacuation)" then you might not be the most understanding person to pass judgment on those who did experience it and selfishly carried their suitcases and laptops off the plane.

flyingmusicianlax

Geez, how about we show a little humanity? I'd be willing to make a very substantial bet that the majority of people in an airline crash experience shock or panic. What they do after the crash isn't necessarily a result of ordinary thought processes.

I'm not saying everyone should get a pass, but if YOU were just in an airline crash, would you be completely right in the head? I'm guessing not.

Thumper

he asked the twenty year Air Force veteran.

Very harshly worded question, not sure why. The fact of the matter is, I have had training on how to walk away from these types of successful landings. You evaluate what is going on then act accordingly. Based on the descriptions of the situation, and perhaps like those who have never seen it to know how they would react, I believe I would have grabbed my backpack.

GEXPO

Does it matter that in this case it didn't make a difference? Must we wait until there is conclusive evidence that a passenger with a carry-on caused a death to take the issue up?

Not trying to sound alarmist but regardless of whether I've experienced an evacuation, seeing the attitude of passengers taking bags is concerning to me if only in the off chance I do happen to have to evacuate a plane in the future.

pindento

+1