To think that these passengers should have criminal charges brought

[HuntIdeas]

After the tragedy of the Aeroflot flight where 41 people died, it sounds like other passengers stopping to get bags out of overhead lockers might have delayed the evacuation and caused some of the deaths!

AIBU to think that the passengers who deliberately took the time to stop and get bags out of overhead lockers, delaying evacuation of passengers behind while the aircraft was on fire, should have criminal charges brought? They directly caused some deaths!

Obviously, in reality it would be difficult to prove who caused what. However, just talking about bringing charges and making it a criminal offence to retrieve baggage in emergency situations would maybe stop other passengers from doing it next time

'What kind of person gets out of an emergency like that and demands a refund then complains coz he didn’t get one within 40mins'

I don't know. Either he is an arsehole or maybe some people go into complete denial about what's just happened?
Quite possibly he hadn't even processed that people had died?

I was in a supermarket the other day and a fire alarm went off. Everyone was paralysed but I just put my shopping down on the belt as I walked through the tills and walked towards the exit. I got to the exit as the alarm stopped. False alarm. I turned round and picked up my shopping and carried on. I will always be one of the first people out because I don't give a monkeys if it's a drill/false alarm I don't hang around to find out. I wonder if fire drills make people complacent?

People follow the herd. If an alarm goes off, they look around and if no-one seems to be taking action, they just carry on as normal.

I was at a football match when the alarm sounded in our stadium. Everyone just looked around at each other, no-one moved, even the stewards just stood there looking around. The game continued on the pitch as if nothing was happening. Eventually, there was a tannoy announcement to evacuate, but even then few people moved, but it did galvanate the stewards into action, but instead of actually raising their voices or shouting at people to get out, they just wandered around politely asking people one by one to leave (reminded me of the polite Dad's Army sergeant!), the game still carried on! In the end it was a false alarm, but it was an absolute fiasco and I really hope that the management and fire safety officer learned from it to retrain their stewards and also take action with the FA to decide whether the referee should pause a match when there is an alarm.

Personally, I think all staff and other responsible people should take the lead when an alarm sounds. If people around see the staff not taking any action, then they're unlikely to either. In the supermarket mentioned by a poster above, the till staff should be telling customers to leave their stuff and vacate, it shouldn't be a matter of customers making their own decisions.

Human failings need to be pre-empted if possible, rather than simply condemned. What's needed is an emergency lock across the lockers, well-publicised, so people can't/won't even try. If a panicky person tries then others around would tell them it's impossible, get out quick!

I admit I was in a conference venue at lunch time where an alarm went off and stood around talking to a few people wondering if we needed to leave, before we finally did. The thing was it did not have the sound of a fire alarm, and I can remember asking someone, is that a fire alarm? Stupid I know. I should have just left. It was a fire alarm, but a false call.

I remember the Paris attacks outside the cafe and the Women being shot at picking up their bags, sure you just don't think.

I would have no issue in tearing said person to shreds in my effort to get away. Sorry but my life is worth more than someone’s duty free or passport.

I recall seeing an experiment where they offered a control group of volunteers a prize to get off the plane first in a test evacuation. It was a free for all. People got trampled, shoved and injured etc.

People do not behave normally in these circumstances. It is still pretty appalling though.

I recall seeing an experiment where they offered a control group of volunteers a prize to get off the plane first in a test evacuation. It was a free for all. People got trampled, shoved and injured etc.

There was a "QI" where they mentioned that the USAF had terrible problems arranging a true evacuation test as military personnel tend to be trained to work together.

Until they offered the first person off the plane $100

For those interested in the reverse, "Mythbusters"did a couple of airplane myths. One about the quickest way to board, and another about rear-facing seats.

As others have said, it was probably panic induced, or maybe people are really thick and think it takes 30 seconds to get your luggage out of the overhang (x that by 150 passengers all trying to get their luggage out)...

You can't account for human behaviour/stupidity in times of crisis.

You don’t know what you’d do in an emergency like that but surely you wouldn’t worry about bags.
There was a train a while ago where someone had planted some kind of incendiary device, several people were trampled on by panicking passengers.

I was horrified when I read this but those who did collect their bags will live with the fact that people died for the rest of their days.

You would worry about bags as evidenced by numerous studies and witness accounts. That doesn't mean that everyone does it but it's a very common response to an emergency/disaster.

I thought the same, JellyBabies. If the overhead cabins automatically locked in an emergency these selfish bastards wouldn't be able to put others lives at risks in an emergency situation. Also, I don't know if I've got this right, but didn't someone say re the Moscow plane fire that some luggage going down the emergency chute could damage it?

This is a classic 'green sheep' of a story and a great idiot-detector.
Firstly, as several PP said, it is a well-documented and frequent behaviour pattern in emergencies and disasters for people to gather belongings. This is not because they are evil, selfish, mercenary: it's a panic behaviour that they cannot help.
It's also quite frequent for people in shock to be irrationally angry and fixated on irrelevant things such as wanting a refund, or blaming someone else for the fact that they chose this date to travel and if they'd gone the day before they would not have been in this situation. Again, it's not proof that humanity is inherently evil and selfish.

There will be an agenda behind the circulating of this story. It may be getting spun as part of the ongoing 'oh noooooo, everyone's more selfish than ever because of smartphones' nonsense, it might be getting pushed to cover up the fact that some or other costcutting procedure led to the accident... or there might be some motivation on behalf of some authorities or plutocrats to regulate air travel even more tightly.

Also, of course, there are now so many more fuckwitted virtue signallers who display zero understanding of human behaviour but like judging other people for their selfish materialism. You could have spun a story, for instance, about someone holding up the escape process so they could talk to their imaginary friend.

I am cabin crew. Every year on our training we are told more examples of people bringing bags off and filming on their mobile phones as they go. Trying to push crew out of the way if they tell them not to use a dangerous exit. It's never been as bad as it is now. The crew will have been shouting at them to leave their bags. It's not just instinct, it's total selfishness.

I was in Morrisons once and the fire alarm went off. I watched in amazement as people started walking back to the entrance at the other end of the store

I think people always assume it's a drill. DH is fire warden at his work and he has to really push people to get out of the building. Their phone calls with "important" clients are far more crucial than getting out. I have to say that in his shoes I would probably be a little less polite, he is nicer than I am, and I'm not sure "nice" is what is needed in these situations. I'd just tell them to f-ing get out NOW or else and snatch the phone out of their hand! He thinks it would be career limiting, I disagree.

I think it should be career limiting NOT to evacuate when you are told.

Their phone calls with "important" clients are far more crucial than getting out.

The company my DH works for has a phone system that cuts off calls with a "Sorry, the fire alarm has been activated and all calls terminated. Please call back later." type message when the fire alarm goes off, which is a really good idea (although probably expensive) as it doesn't give people the choice/chance to hang about finishing calls.

One of the issues in some countries is that in situations like that, the police and airport services will loot the luggage afterwards, if they can. Whilst this does not excuse the appallingly selfish behaviour, it perhaps explains some of it.

I was listening to an interview on radio 4 with flight safety experts about this. The next step would be to put a central locking system on overhead storage. It's seriously being considered. Obviously unlocked when safe to be, but locked at take off and landing and emergencies.

I noticed many if not all the passengers who made it off the plane were carrying luggage from the under head bins, not just small handbags etc from under the seat in front of them. They did this when the people behind them were burning to death.

Fuck anyone who says it is 'autopilot' to retrieve your bags from an over head bin while people behind you screaming as they die.

One obese man, with all his luggage had to be shoved out of the door.

Would the people here who are yapping on about autopilot be getting their luggage as their clothes caught on fire or as they choked on dense toxic smoke. No I thought NOT because that would be your arse on fire and not some poor bugger behind you.

Yes these fuckers with the luggage need to be charge with manslaughter.

I think people always assume it's a drill

Those who do would probably have enjoyed my old chemistry master. Knowing a school drill was due, he made a smoke bomb and let it off at the base of the staircase well, which certainly added some "reality" to the process

I should add that this was in 1970 ... he's probably have lost his job for that now

Again, we'll just ignore the experts shall we?

It drives me mad at work when people hang about waiting to see if it’s a drill. Just make to leave, and if all is fine you can go back. And getting 30 teenagers to leave their stuff behind when we evacuate is basically impossible.

Let’s not start on the stress our staggered evacuation causes me. I have to wait 60 seconds from the first alarm sounding before leaving the room I normally teach in. They are 60 very long seconds.