Would You Get Your Hand Luggage Before Evacuating?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34191035
Can they be prosecuted under US law for not getting out as quickly as possible?

[jno]

if possible; and don't know.

[hc4361]

Might be unfashionable but I have a smart leather bumbag that the cabin crew seem to ignore. I keep passport, phone, wallet in that and the stuff in the overhead locker isn't important.

[andy-hughes]

It's difficult to assess without having been there.

If the crew are evacuating everyone, and it's proceeding in an orderly fashion, and there is no panic, and you are standing my your seat waiting your turn on the chute, and you can reach your bag, I'd be inclined to do so.

If there were flames licking around the window, and the crew were hurrying everyone out with as much speed as possible, and getting my bag would delay the procedure even for a moment, then I would not try and get my bag.

[ukanonymous]

If I was waiting to get off with my family because of someone getting their hand luggage I would go absolutely crazy. I can put how I would feel into words.

But then again Perhaps they were not told how serious it was by the attendants.

[jno]

we lost a suitcase once (not in a burning plane) and at least half of the things in it proved to be irreplaceable (out-of fashion clothes, discontinued gadgets and whatnot), and the insurance company would only pay for half of them. So I'd try to take anything I could.

[Clanad]

While there's no directly worded Federal Aviation Regulation FAR) prohibiting carrying luggage off the aircraft, if a crew member orders a passenger to drop it and get off expeditiously and the passenger refuses and attempts to carry it off anyway, the applicable FAR is 14 CFR Part 121.589 which states under subpart (e)..."Each passenger must comply with instructions given by a crewmember regarding compliance (with previous paragraphs relative to carry-on baggage).

This is in addition to several other parts that make it an offense not to comply with orders given by crewmembers.

These are not "laws" in the general sense but carry with them the full weight of monetary penalties. If it's shown the passenger ("Pax" in airline parlance) intentionally endangered other pax by his/her disobeying the order, it becomes a criminal offense which is pursued by other law enforcement means and can result in jail time.

[Ellipsis]

Interesting couple of comments on that BBC article ...

This aircraft was about 58% full and therefore the speed at which evacuation was achieved is faster than a full plane evacuation. Imagine a full A380 evacuation with these idiots pictured on the tarmac at LAS trying to exit with their large bulky wheelie bags? Completely unacceptable.
- Roderick McIntosh, Staines, UK

I am a flight attendant and this irritates me to no end! There are many issues with taking hand baggage in an evacuation. You could hold up the people behind you, keep in mind that for all aircraft sizes and types the crew have 90 seconds to get every passenger off the plane. If it gets dropped in the panic people (including you) could trip over it and even get trampled. In a planned evacuation we must ask all passengers to remove high heels and spectacles before evacuating as they can pierce the slide and make it impossible for anyone behind you (including the flight attendants) to use. Can you imagine how much damage a trolley bag could do if a pair of glasses are enough to damage the slide? What if the first person down every slide broke it with a bag and there are still hundreds of people left on an aircraft carrying enough fuel to cross the Atlantic? What's shocking here is that there were clear signs of smoke and fire but so many people still took the extra time to take their bags out. Even if there are no signs of anything being wrong people need to remember that an emergency evacuation with slides is the last resort and will only ever occur if there is a possibility that the people on that aircraft are going to die. Just because you can't see the danger it doesn't mean it isn't there. One last thought. The flight attendants and pilots are always the last off. Meaning that holding up other passengers and breaking slides isn't an issue. Now think, have you ever seen a flight attendant after an evacuation with her hand luggage?? No. Because we have been shown how quickly things can turn from bad to inescapable. If a situation turns out not to be as bad, or firefighters control any fire, you will get your belongings back. If the worst happens and the aircraft is destroyed, just realise how lucky you are that you're not still on there!
- Anon, Essex

[jno]

Clanad, I suspect this involved just the usual business of shuffling toward the nearest exit, which would allow time to grab hand baggage. I've not seen any complaints from passengers that other passengers' action impeded them at all; the indignation seems to be coming from people sitting at home looking at the photos.

[Clanad]

You may be right, jno... except it didn't take but just a few moments for the noticeable smoke to become a roaring inferno, ming rapid exit even more important...

[andy-hughes]

Serious food for thought Ellipsis. I fly two or three times a year, I have now completely re-thought my evacuation strategy - thank you.

[ukanonymous]

elipsis its a very good point and well said. They should have automatic locking mechanisms on the luggage. You still get far too many stupid people about.

[ToraToraTora]

I think people were blocking the channels by getting bags out of the over seat storage.

[bednobs]

i was told off at work the other day for taking my freshly made cup of tea with me on a fire evacuation. it was right there in front of me and didnt take extra time to pck up :)

[bednobs]

they always seem to choose effing freezing days to do fire evacs!

[Bazile]

The other factor is that the chutes could easily have got damaged by some of the different types of luggage , thus raising the possibility of injury to the people sliding down