Originally Posted by
netopia
I can't believe frequent fliers are just speculating wildly about this. Read the safety card and do what it says. It's different on every aircraft.
Some have a wing-attached emergency slide that could be destroyed when you throw the hatch on it. PLEASE don't throw it out there just because you think it's the right thing to do.
Others tell you to throw it out, presumably because it would be in the way if it were sitting on the seats.
This 10x. It's certainly good to run through scenarios where you might have a good reason to do something different than the instructions (e.g. tilt/angle), but if you're sitting in that exit row you had better read and know how it's expected *for that plane* and plan that as the default.
I can guarantee if the card says to put it on the seats and you decide to throw it out, but it gets jammed in the opening because it's heavier than you expected, or deflates the slide, and people are trapped because of that, you're going to have a lot of questions to answer (if you're around to do so). I don't pretend to know what kind of legal liability goes along with assisting in an airliner emergency, but "yeah, I read it and did something different just because. No, it didn't work out" isn't going to be very fun to repeat in court even if you eventually prevail...