Originally Posted by
PDR1
I don't know how you got that from what I wrote, but for clarification - this thread has split into two elements. On the one hand we have people criticising the passengers who took their bags with them when they left, and on the other hand we have people criticising passengers simply for having so much carry-on baggage (or indeed ANY carry-on baggage in some cases) at all, and hpow this creates the first problem.
Comments about the airlines' resposiboility are in response to the second question. People have carry-on baggage because the airlines explicitly encourage them to do so and discourage them from checking baggage into the hold. If you have a problem with that aspect then take it up with the airlines, because it's nothing to do with the passengers.
My view on passengers taking their carry-on with them is simply that most passengers are probably not capable of rational thought in such an emergency. I've been involved in one "emergency evacuation" that was pretty mild, in an old 747 classic that had a smoke-in-the-cabin even when one of the engines was started (I gather there was a minor oil puddle after mainteance on one engine). I was at the back in the smoking area (gives an idea how long ago this was!) and we stood in the isle seemingly for ages before we finally moved to the exit. I would have had enough time to get my carry-on bag, take valuables from it, put it back and probably make myself a coffee during that wait.
But I have been trapped in a burning building - my bedroom in my parents' home, to be precise (in 1982 - a few weeks before my 21st birthday). I awoke at around 2AM to find the house full of smoke and loud crackling from downstairs. I shouted and made sure I got an answer from all the other family members, and then I went to the phone extension in the room and spent several minutes trying to call the fire brigade. This was futile because I didn't even get a dial tone, but I still continued. By this stage the smoke was pretty choking and the heat was getting intense. Then I heard people shouting outside and realised that I really should be thinking more about joining them, so I picked up a chair and spend over a minute failing to smash the (safety glass) secondary double glazing on the window, culminating in the chair bouncing off the window hand smacking me hard in the head. That stopped me, and made me think (probably for the first time since waking up) and FINALLY it occured to me to just grab the screwdriver from my work bench, prise the clips of the double galing panel and remove the pane of glass so that I could open the window behind it and jump out. That delay gave me second-degree burns (which I still have some scars from), and it was over a year before I could sleep more than 10 mins at a stretch. So I KNOW (not a theory - a personal observation) that in these crisis situations people do not think or behave rationally, even when it's bleedin' obvious and someone is shouting at them. That's just the nature of the human condition when suffering adrenaline overdoses.
If you haven't been there then you're not in a position to stand in judgement over others. I won't ever look to jail people for being human. That would be stupid.
PDR
Sorry for your experience in the house, that would be a terrible situation and while you make some good points, how many wings were attached to the house and how many tonnes of fuel was contained in them. I'm not being flippant, but an aeroplane is not a house, it is a peculiarly shaped object with tonnes of fuel that makes it virtually a potential bomb. I'm not satisfied that the stopping to get cabin baggage isn't a product of the selfishness of the situation. You were trying to contact the Fire Brigade, then you were trying to open the window... these people were stopping to collect personal belongings because they thought that was more important than the people's lives behind them.