Southwest 737 emergency landing--smoke in the cabin--March 5
 

Many air masks on the plane did not deploy.

Good, they shouldn’t.

A classic fight or flight response from some in the cabin, smashing the PSU covers in order to access masks, leading to injury, rapidly heating chemical O2 generators and the addition of concentrated O2 into a potential fire scenario within a confined space.

A safe outcome despite a few individuals injuring themselves to access what is only used in the event of a depressurisation.

It needs to be answered whether the captain released o2 masks against protocol. And - per testimonials - some didn't deploy.

Did the crew PA advise parents on fitting a child's mask?

You are mis quoting the article. It is a male passenger shouting about children and masks and it is passengers that have damaged the PSUs in order to force the masks to deploy and have injured themselves in this process. At no point would the flight crew deploy the pass oxy masks in this scenario.

I stand rebuked. Although asking about crew PA is not misquoting the article. My Spanish isn't as good as yours.

The drop down oxygen masks are for depressurization scenarios not smoke in the cabin events.

As others have mentioned upstream, providing additional oxygen sources during an inflight fire could be catastrophic.

That's another reason wearing or having with you a high quality N95 with a good seal may help in such an admittedly rare scenario. At least it will buy you a little more time.

Smoke in the cabin is one of the worst things that can happen. If I am not mistaken, the 90-second evacuation rule for aircraft certification is based on the fact that after 90 seconds of thick smoke in the cabin, passengers will become incapacitated from smoke inhalation and die (in an assumed scenario of some kind of crash landing with fire).

Emergency evacuation with full luggage and everything....

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That is so frustrating to see. I'm sure cabin crew told them not to do it but people can't fathom being separated from their "stuff."

In addition to what others have said, the passenger oxygen masks won't help in a smoke-filled cabin. The mask mixes the ambient air with the oxygen so you'd still be inhaling smoke. The purpose of the masks is to add some 100% oxygen to the thin cabin air in a depressurization so as to increase the oxygen partial-pressure so that your lungs can transfer more oxygen into your blood.

Not sure how you stop them from doing that. It's always going to happen.

People who take their luggage with them in an emergency evacuation should be strung up on charges of hindering an emergency evacuation and sent straight to jail, where they will have no access to their precious belongings.

Collect the large bags from the passengers on the tarmac before boarding the busses, put them in a big pile, add some jet fuel, and set them on fire. Broadcast on evening news.

If one of those selfish and moronic people hindered my escape by attempting to pull their bag out of the overhead bin I can assure you they will not be getting that bag.

Then the evacuation certification tests should be conducted in realistic conditions, with 40-60% of passengers bringing their luggage to the slides, full size wheeled carry-ons included....