When I travel, I use the much-maligned fanny pack for wallet, phone, etc. and fasten my seatbelt tucked underneath it. I may look like a tourist, but I rarely have to worry about where my immediately valuable stuff is.
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Because running around barefoot on a hot runway with debris scatttered all over it is a good idea? How about don’t wear high heels or synthetic fabrics on a plane. Of course a flash hood in your wouldn’t be a BAD idea…
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That’s why, when I fly, I wear a vest. It’s ugly, but it has big pockets so I won’t be leaving my wallet, passport, or phone. No grabbing necessary, they are always on my person. I also wear cotton clothing and boots or shoes I can run in. I’ve thought way too much about this, honestly.
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I always make sure I have some of kind allowed multitool in my bag in case we crash land on an island or end up lost at sea.
I’d love to tell you you’re not weird, but I’m too weird for it to be meaningful.
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On the one hand, this video is terrifying and infuriating. On the other, the fact is that everyone actually did get out alive. So, based on outcomes, in this case it was ok for people to grab their stuff.
Human nature being human nature, no one was likely thinking “in a matter of seconds this plane will be consumed by fire so hot it literally melts.” People were thinking “wow well that was terrifying but we’re on the ground and survived it.”
What I’m taking away from this is - always sit in or near the emergency exit row.
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Maybe overhead storage should be able to be locked shut by the crew in case of an emergency landing, to help prevent this kind of clusterfuck.
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Awhile back, the pilot responsible for the AskThePilot blog wrote a rant on this after seeing video of people evacuating a plane with their bags. Shortly after, he got a message from psychologist who studies this sort of thing and had interviewed plenty of evacuees. She said that people have a tendency to go into autopilot mode in a stressful situation, and that the majority of people she interviewed didn’t even remember grabbing their bags and (if I remember correctly) even expressed embarrassment at having done so.
So I feel no malice toward the people who grabbed their bags. If I were waiting behind them you can bet there would have been some yelling and pushing, but no real malice. If I were stuck behind somebody trying to film the whole thing, though, I might just be tempted to lock him in an overhead bin…
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This is also why I appreciate my ability to spend more on getting into first, business, or premium economy over standard economy. The lower passenger density helps being able to get around the people who don’t think how serious an evac is and most of the people in those classes fly much more frequently and will actively know what’s up with an evac.
Actually, studies have shown that frequent flyers tend to fare poorly compared to infrequent flyers in an evacuation situation precisely because they think, “I fly all the time, I know what’s up.” So they ignore the safety videos, they don’t look at the safety card, and when the plane needs to be evacuated they’re clueless.
I’m a frequent flyer too, and my employer is kind enough to put me in business class. Especially considering the lower passenger density, it’s shocking just how often I see people get up to grab something from the overhead bin, use the bathroom, or even ask the flight attendant strapped to his or her jump seat a question when the plane is 2 minutes or less from hitting the runway. On my last flight I even saw a guy stand up to stretch and adjust his pants when the screen in front of me told me we were only 275 feet off the ground!
The lower passenger density would be a plus, but I for one will never count on my fellow business class passengers being more evacuation-savvy than the poors back in cattle class.
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Well, yeah, it’s not the best idea to wear high heels or synthetics on a plane, but people will. Policies against them wouldn’t go over too well; you’d get tons of people griping and saying “what’s the point” even when though it makes perfect sense.
Fair, I just wear jeans and I can keep phone, wallet, and passport in my pockets. If I started flying with clothes that don’t have good enough pockets I’d probably keep a small purse-like bag small enough to fit in the seat pocket or that I can sit on.
No, it turned out okay, but it was not okay for them to grab their stuff; they were putting everyone in additional danger, even though it didn’t turn out that way in this case.
I wish, but not exactly implementable right now; and there’s sure going to be some sort of unintended consequence from it.
I feel much the same way; I feel no malice about it, but I would be doing what I could to get around them.
I’d say it’s slightly more, because no one in economy, despite how much they travel, properly listens to the safety briefing. But the lower passenger density does help getting around the assholes who don’t know that an evac is serious business.
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If I wanted to lose my baggage I’d have checked it.
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You can see why he hated flying.
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What is this, a budgerigar carrier?
Why should anybody live if I can’t take my bag of crap?
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It may well pop open in a heavy landing anyway. Also, I have seen safety gear stashed in those lockers.
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–Yeah, you can’t really ban passengers from wearing them, but you sure as heck shouldn’t require the cabin crew to wear them.
I’d punch you all in the face on my way out.
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when you see the photos, it looks like just running across the slide might actually work better than jumping. With the landing gear malfunctioning it don’t think that there is enough slope for gravity to pull you to the end of the slide.
In this case where the landing gear is retracted, that is true. I have seen a picture from a different incident where (say) the nose gear had collapsed and you would have needed a rope to get down a rear slide.
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That was the case with the Gimli Glider and there were several serious injuries as a result.
Yeah, but compared with the potential results in that case, even several serious injuries was really a hell of a good result. That was both one huge screw up (when calculating the fuel load) and one amazing bit of piloting (and likely an equal amount of amazing luck.)
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