Originally Posted by
PDR1
Of course it is, or at least clearly more than a little tongue-in-cheek. But it's no more ridiculous that all this judgemental twattery about murder charges against people for what they did when under extreme stress in the middle of a developing disaster.
Focus on WHY people have so much carry-on stuff in the first place. That comes down to two things - the minor one is the delays in baggage recovery in a typical airport (I've spent over an hour standing in baggage reclaim many times), but the major one is the way airlines have decided that a ticket only entitles the passenger to travel with the clothes they stand in (and not too many of those). Everything else attracts punitive charges because they claim they can sell that cargo space, although interestingly the rate they want to charge for hold baggage is considerably more than the rate they charge for it as freight. I've always assumed this is because the freight rates are a competitive ,market while passenger baggage is a captive audience. So those who are naturally inclined to fraud and extortion (ie most of the airlines) cannot resist the opportunity to steal ever more money from their customers.
So if you're looking for someone who needs to be punished, or charged with conspiracy to murder [tongue in cheek], start with the airlines. The passengers come a long way down any list of blame-worthy people here.
PDR
Being in a burning building is stressful too but I bet you'll find if someone does anything to impede evacuation... also in a commercial premises, they are in the frame for manslaughter. There is no reason why this scenario should be any different. It's called culpability. If they want to use stress as a defense, fine, but if the prospect is there and it stops one person from doing this and a life is saved, then it's worth it. Car accidents are stressful too... people are sometimes in shock, but if you seriously injure someone then drive off to get a quote to get your car repaired and leave the injured person to die then you go for a row of sh-t houses. No different in an aircraft cabin.