Comment by gumby
3 years ago
30 years ago I was in an emergency landing due to engine failure situation (flight attendants take away your shoes, practice crash position, rearrange the passengers etc) and the thing that stuck out the most for me was that everybody did as they were told. No self righteous people; it was clear to everyone why there are flight attendants aboard and that they were key to your survival. The evacuation was orderly, though the follow up was lengthy (e.g. everybody’s passport was still on board).
More recently I’ve seen pictures of people evacuating down the slides with their luggage! Seems incredibly dangerous, not just for the slide experience but in slowing down evacuation. We had no fire in the cabin but what if we had?
Oh yeah, you know the stereotype of the press sticking their camera in your face to see how freaked out you are? It does happen in real life.
You’re not supposed to take anything on the slides. No luggage. No shoes. Just you.
But it is ignored. Which is sad, people could really get hurt.
Your right though the fact as many people comply as they do is kind of incredible given how people act in other situations.
Yeah, according to the linked article 5 - 10% of people are injured using the escape slides, which is why they waited for the stairs in this case.
They took out per shoes away so that was that. According to a parallel reply, they no longer do that.
Why in the world do you have to take your shoes off before going down the slides? I could understand jackets or jewelry, but shoes?
As silly as it might seem, you do something enough times and oddball rare things happen .. this is an instruction intended to reduce:
* shoes | boots with sharp objects embedded in soles (glass, bent nails)
* extra spikey high heels,
* work boots with hard edged metal hooks for laces,
(etc) causing damage to both inflatable slipways and to other passengers.
How often has a passenger going down an emergancy slide caused a rip that deflated that slide?
Not very often .. and aircrew are taught to issue instructions that make that as an unlikely occurence as possible.
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Many shoes have hard, sharp parts that could damage the slide, even to the point of complete deflation. There is no time to assess whose shoes would be safe and whose not, so the blanket rule is "no shoes".
High heels are not OK, for obvious reasons. Regular shoes are fine.
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I was in a hotel fire evacuation once and the stairwells were all blocked because everyone brought every piece of their luggage with them.
Disgraceful.
People evacuate with their luggage because in times of high stress, we fall back on habit. What do we do when it's time to leave an aircraft? We make sure we have all our belongings with us!
That's just one reason why it's important to listen to the safety briefing, even if you've heard it before. The repeated drill helps us to remember what to do, even when there's added stress.
I don't really think the phenomenon is anything other than people selfishly wanting their belongings to be saved over another passenger's life.
This seems a bit too misanthropic. The risk-reward is more nuanced. If I take my stuff, odds are everybody will still be okay, and I'll have my stuff.
I’ve always wondered what happens after an emergency landing. Do you just kinda sit there and wait for bags and personal belongings to be offloaded? And then wait for another flight out?
Honestly, each and every one of those people should either be charged with reckless endangerments, put on an no-fly list or both. It really pisses me off when I see that. F**ing entitled idiots.
I remember there was this video of a plane in Russia that was on fire, multiple people died. And you see people walking away with their luggage, can’t help it think people would still be alive if it wasn’t for those who so urgently needed their suitcases.
People don’t follow the rules when they don’t trust their government for providing sane rules.
Case in point when you provide an example with Russia. Other example is Covid.
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