Originally Posted by
PersonFromPorlock
I wouldn't have asked this forty years ago, but: Suppose so many of the PAX were calm because it simply didn't occur to them that they were in danger? A great many of the comments I see on line (but not here) show a delusion that the physical world is so thoroughly under human control that if somebody doesn't make or allow something to happen, it doesn't happen. So while a fire outside is a problem for people outside, nobody is going to let it come inside - so, no problem inside.
Or am I just a paleoflatus grumbling about 'kids these days'?
Here's the $6,000,000 question: "How much danger WHERE these passengers in, in this SPECIFIC set of circumstances"?
- KNOWING that (up to 6?) state of the art fire-fighting appliances - capable of delivering a mother-load of foam to the fire - are less than a minute away.
- KNOWING that the cabin would provide protection for a short-time (odds on until rescue services were on-scene)
- NOT KNOWING if passengers may be killed by burning pooling fuel by the time the evacuation was COMPLETE (not initiated; one has to try and extrapolate what conditions will be like in a couple of minutes time)
I'd suggest that in this case that there may be a greater chance of passengers being safer the way it was done.
In my opinion, it's not comparable to the Air China B738 where fire-services took around FIVE minutes to get the foam flowing.
If the captain DIDN'T know that fire services would be there in a matter of a few seconds then - in my opinion - that would be a game changer and an evacuation would be the obvious choice. But if he DID know how close they were then to me that changes things.
I'm reminded of a pyromaniac running our local fire dept ragged by lighting plastic rubbish bins - one after the other. Brigade went through the same "SOP" - turn-up - on-board hose reel - extinguish - about 6 in a row. When attending the 7th, did he do the same thing? Nope - he grabbed a dry powder extinguisher this time. Why? This bin was attached to a pole with 230v running through a cable for an overhead light. Point I'm trying to make is that he had the presence of mind to break from the obvious & common solution and realise that in this specific set of circumstances things needed to be done slightly differently.