This week in Patrick Smith's ASK THE PILOT column at Salon.com

What is proper etiquette during an emergency evacuation?

Plus, confused pilots, ATC favors, and the strange reincarnation of airline names...


"… And should fire or smoke break out, things can go from orderly and benign to complete chaos in just a few seconds. With visibility reduced and panicked people pressing around you, suddenly you're not as agile as you think you are, increasing the likelihood of you dropping whatever is you're carrying, slowing the egress of others. Also, those escape slides are * very * steep. You'll be coming down -- from over two stories high in the case of a widebody jet -- at a rapid clip, with others doing the same in front of you and right behind you. You're computer becomes a dangerous projectile as well as a possible hindrance…Discouragingly, we've seen a pattern of people choosing to grab their carry-ons after even very serious incidents. In Toronto in 2005, an Air France A340 ran off a runway, careened into a gulch and was consumed by fire. Photographs from the scene show passengers nonchalantly escaping with briefcases, computers, and backpacks. Nobody was killed, but had more of the doors been blocked or slides not deployed, or had flames spread more quickly…"



"… The real Republic Airlines was formed in 1979 through the merger of Minneapolis-based North Central Airlines and Atlanta-based Southern Airlines. Today's Republic is an outfit with no relation to the original. They simply resurrected the name. There have been numerous in-name-only startups, most of them short-lived before joining the originals on that big tarmac in the sky. We had three versions of Pan Am, three Braniffs, and two Midways. When USAir purchased Piedmont and Pacific Southwest (PSA) in 1987, these brands had been so admired that a decision was made to keep the names alive. They were assigned to a pair of USAir Express affiliates. Suddenly, PSA found itself in Ohio, while at airports along the Eastern Seaboard passengers could once again step aboard Piedmont. Sort of…."



The full article is here:

http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/...skthepilot337/

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Recently in ASK THE PILOT: Airplanes, Oxygen, and Myths about Cabin Air
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/...askthepilot335