I was also interested to note that slide looks awfully full with only 9 pob... or is it just he angle of the water???
With regard to passengers possibly 'not being told'... I can assure you the first command in a ditching (either prepared or unprepared) which is taught is something along the lines of: (Im not US Air but would guess it'd be similar)
Fit your lifejackets
They are (location)
High heels off
Said while opening useable doors and waiting for slide inflation, gives pax time to get vests on, soon as a raft is useable the crew member at that door will order evac and get things moving. Hence from reports that doors were opened fairly quickly (slides only take 3-5 secondsto deploy) that by the time the FAs ordered evac many pax well could have still been trying to get lifejackets on and decided they just wanted out and weren't waiting around!
I'd be interested to know if different terminology was used than 'Brace for impact'- some airlines use different phrases for land and water so FAs know as soon as possible that it's a water impact.
Knowing they were taking off over water, FAs could well have given the lifejacket command early, if so then good work on their part. I myself taking off over water think to myself 'If I were to get a brace command now, we'll likely be on water.... what are my ditch commands..." If you;re not on water, well it's easy to amend your commands once you see where you are
Good job by all, can anyone confirm the procedure mentioned earlier for detatching a slide raft? I was under the impression they can only be detached once inflated OUTSIDE the aircraft... or are these 'slide only' devices... interesting, as my airline uses 'slide-raft' type setups....
(I mean, given the way slides/rafts are stowed in a slide pack, wouldn't it be nearly impossible to remove a slide from a closed door or is there some mechanism (access hatch) to take the pack out... I would think this would be a bad idea as imagine it inflating in the cabin... or did you indeed mean detatching the slide/raft once inflated and moving it to the front of the aircraft???