Dubai plane crash

[nuttymango]

Very sad about the fire fighter who lost his life. Amazing that the crew managed to get everybody out, they must have been amazing.

Yes they were all very lucky. Especially considering people potentially impeded others' exit from the plane by getting their luggage out of the overhead lockers. Idiots.

I understand it is fairly common for passengers to try to grab their bags when evacuating an aircraft. The footage of this particular crash also seems to show some people grabbing oxygen masks for no obvious reason. Of course, there is also the question of why some people in the plane were filming the evacuation - that also has the potential to slow things down.

It is easy to brand the passengers concerned as idiots. However, the behaviour is so common that such a simplistic response is inadequate. Research is needed to figure out why people behave in this way.

They should just automatically lock the overhead lockers in an emergency!

It is not clear that this would work. There is evidence that passengers would waste time trying to force bins open if they were locked. There is also the potential for the locking system to fail in the "locked" mode blocking access to the lockers. This could be a safety concern if, for example, electrical items in the locker (mobile phones, laptops, etc.) went into thermal runaway causing a fire. It also doesn't stop passengers wasting time recovering stuff they've shoved under the seat.

It is certainly something to look at but it may not be the solution.

The underlying problem is that passengers often don't appreciate the urgency of the situation. They think they are safe now that the plane is on the ground and want to make sure they've got their passport, phone, money, etc. They don't realise that they are still potentially in a life or death situation and every second counts.