Emotional baggage

What will it take to make people leave their hand luggage behind in an evacuation situation, where delays cost lives?

Everyone knows the drill. In an emergency, you leave your belongings behind and evacuate in an orderly fashion…you don’t grab your possessions and/or film the event for posterity.

Yet, when an American Airlines Boeing 767 caught fire on Oct. 28, passengers broke these potentially life-saving rules. Again.

Let’s be clear. This aircraft was about to take off. It was fully laden with fuel. And it was clearly on fire. I have no words.

Fortunately nobody was killed, but 24 people reported “non-critical” injuries. Could any of these have been avoided?

The video – yes video – from a passenger evacuating shows several empty overhead lockers. I’m guessing those lockers were full when the aircraft pushed back. Separate footage shows several passengers with backpacks, standing beside the stricken aircraft.

This isn’t the first, or last, time this will happen, so what can be done to prevent this selfish behavior? Do you make it illegal? If smoking is a criminal offence on board, why not hindering an evacuation?

Do you lock overhead bins for take-off and landing? Could this bring additional benefits by preventing them coming open in an accident?

People might want to keep certain items – like medication - handy, but this could be covered off in the safety briefing. It may also make people think about what they genuinely need, rather than what they want, in an evacuation scenario.

Whatever the answer is, it needs to be fixed before it costs lives. Nobody’s laptop is more important than a person.

To re-quote ATR Editor-in-Chief Karen Walker: “The top message of the safety brief should be no bags, no stopping, get out.” How many times does this need repeating?

Victoria Moores [email protected]