Originally Posted by
canopus27
I think we agree that those at the very back of the plane (row 20, I think) likely had no chance. Horribly, that likely also applies to the last several rows. But if row 10 was literally inches away from the instant death that you imply impacted row 11, then I don't believe that he would have time to collect his bag. At some point, your own survival instinct will force you to drop everything and run.
You only stop to collect your bag when you believe you have time to do so without risking your survival - so he had some spare time. Maybe only seconds, but some. I believe that his choice to use those seconds to collect his bag, likely cost some the people in row 11 (and possibly others), their lives.
There is no way the crash was unsurvivable in row X and the people in row X+1 had time to pull carry-on out of the overhead and exit the plane. We won't know until the preliminary / final report but I would bet a large sum of money that people pulling their carry-on out killed people. One video I saw seemed to show the video taker even using their sweet time getting out of their seat. I would have literally been running people over to get off that plane, even if I was in row 2.