Originally Posted by
Huck
As to saving the bags... there was only one window up front that was usable, and there were 6 or 7 people aboard... it takes time to go down the strap, so a line formed waiting to go. The guys at the end of the line were just standing there so they threw the baggage out the open door. I'm not sure what else they were supposed to be doing.....
Although that was the testimony,
the NTSB disputed that after reviewing the
evacuation video footage.
...the crewmembers did not evacuate the airplane in an uninterrupted flow. Although the captain and cockpit jumpseat nonrevenue pilot evacuated relatively quickly, the videotape showed delays between subsequent evacuating crewmembers. During these delays, the escape ropes were available but unused, and several pieces of baggage were thrown from the airplane. The elapsed time between successive crewmembers exiting the airplane was as much as 63 seconds....
It is evident that the delays were the result of the offloading of crewmembers personal bags and not because they were waiting for other crewmembers to exit or had difficulty using the cockpit egress system.