Carry-on bags and evacuations don’t mix
On October 23, 2015, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of the United Kingdom issued a safety notice to operators highlighting the dangers of passengers evacuating aircraft with carry-on baggage. Photo by MichaÅ‚ Parzuchowski on Unsplash The safety notice states: “Evidence from evacuations of aeroplanes since 2013 has shown that significant numbers of passengers attempt to take hand baggage with them when evacuating an aircraft. Such passenger behaviour can present a significant hindrance to egress, injury to other passengers, and damage to evacuation slides.” Following numerous high-profile aircraft accidents involving passenger and crew evacuations, recurring images have shown passengers carrying their belongings off the aircraft. One notable incident involved the fire and evacuation of a British Airways aircraft in Las Vegas. These events have prompted industry insiders and safety experts to emphasize the dangers associated with retrieving carry-on baggage during eva...