That's not true.

Like the former LEO in this thread, I know what I'd do, in part because I've experienced an emergency evacuation and because I worked in a field where disaster drills were routine. When you regularly practice for emergencies, your reaction changes from panic to trained and ingrained. At work, the moment the emergency bell went off, every member of the team knew what to do because we all did at least once a month, nobody panicked, and when a real disaster hit (Loma Prieta earthquake) every member of the staff performed as they were trained to do.

My experience with evacuating an aircraft was an RJ that lost all hydraulics. Pilot warned us it would be a hard landing (he could hardly help it, there wasn't a cockpit door and we could hear him on the radio). We diverted to the nearest airport, landed between to two rows of emergency vehicles and the second the FA opened the door nobody had to be told to move rapidly OUT. After the plane was sprayed with foam and inspected by the fire crew, we were allowed to retrieve carry-on bags.