The bit about the escape chute's makes interesting reading and worries me a little.
Did we really used to fly (still fly?) around in a/c where the chute had to be manually unpacked and then rigged by connecting colour coded bits together in the middle of an emergency situation? Who thought to put it under a trapdoor where all the pax would obviously be stood just prior to an evacuation? Were aircraft not required to be retrofitted with modern inflatable chutes just because they were certified prior to these being widely available? A recipie for disaster if you ask me (which of course you didn't).
I suppose it highlights just how far safety has moved on in the last 30 or 40 years and how much we take it for granted.
Well done to that crew - I'm sure not many would have handled the situation better under the circumstances.