V-Flyer

DXB is closed due to an EK accident, flight diverted to SHJ, DWC. I have 4 EK just landed in SHJ with more on the way, bust time ahead.

Iain

Emergency landing with possible Fire on Board local news reporting

Aircraft is on fire on the runway..

Absolutely outstanding job by the EK crew to get everybody off safely.

Well done to all the EK crew - I know this is what they train for over and over (along with crew for any other airline). The pictures that are emerging do make this look like a pretty serious crash though, with extensive fire damage. Just glad that everyone gout alive & safely.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-36963112


Airport has reopened.

In the aftermath of this, some pretty appalling behaviour has been spotted as a somewhat alarming trend.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36985862

If the aircraft was on fire, the last thing I'd be thinking about is my laptop, which, if it had work on it, would be synced with my dropbox during the last online session. I think your own life is slightly more important than a report.

This is the main reason I travel with a ScottEVest instead of a carry on bag and won't be changing anytime soon.

Of some of the solutions presented here, the central locking does seem like it would work, but I wonder if making it a criminal act would deter most people? You're technically putting others in danger when you try to retrieve any item from the overhead locker during an emergency. (Daily Mail sensationalist type headlines could make it tantamount to murder!)

Again, fantastic work by the crew. I cannot stress that enough.

I'd be interested in hearing fellow V-flyer thoughts on this.

Of course preserving life must be the sole priority during an emergency.

But we have to recognise that times have changed. As the article points out, it's actually not that long ago that the typical carry on bag was a briefcase or a handbag containing a few in-flight essentials. Now it's more likely to be your only luggage, containing everything you need for your trip including, in many cases, hundreds if not thousands of pounds worth of devices. And the airlines must take their share of the blame for that, by promoting hand baggage only fares or charging extra to check in luggage - anything to keep baggage handling costs down.

The solution isn't locking overhead bins though. In an emergency many people's instinctive reaction would still be to try and open them. When they couldn't, they'd try again. And again. Which would waste even more precious seconds, create even more congestion in the aisles and cause even more confusion.

The solution? Probably incentivising passengers to carry less hand baggage, not more. BA allows 23kg which is ridiculous - many people couldn't even lift that into a locker. But that'll never happen and with people now carrying so much expensive gadgetry which they'd never check in under any circumstances, I think it's probably a problem that'll go unsolved.

I've no idea what the ideal solution is to this - admittedly worrying - trend in pax taking hand luggage (anything up to a wheelie case in some instances) with them in an emergency evacuation is.

Make it illegal and it might work in some countries such as the UAE where justice is pretty fast and strict when they want it to be. Make it illegal won't work in the USA or probably over here either, as passengers will find a "Mr Loophole"-type lawyer who will manage to cast enough doubt on the cause of the accident to put the airline at fault - even if it is an offence not to follow a crew members instruction (which it is).

Central locking on the overhead bins would solve some of the problems with bigger bags - but what about the carry-ons stowed under the seat in front? No solution there.

At the end of the day, passengers need to use common sense when you have an emergency landing - particularly when there is a fire & the wings & fuel tanks are full of a lot of JET-A fuel.

This will never happen though... I used to work at a UK Theme Park (one of the big ones) and the first line of the general induction training was "Guests leave their brains in their car / on their coach as soon as they arrive here" and it's 100% true. The stuff we used to see & deal with was mind-boggling, but it included ride-area incursions where guests were climbing over high fences to enter a live ride area (with trains of up to 8 tons doing about 50mph) to retrieve lost items to save having to wait until the end of the day when we would get it for them.

The only thing the airlines could do - but admittedly not easy to implement - is issue a lifetime ban to any passengers identified evacuating a stricken aircraft with hand luggage. Make the ban worldwide with all major airlines too. Thankfully aircraft crashes are rare, but if people start to get the message that "Get out now, leave everything behind" means just that, and a few start to get banned some people *may* think twice - or maybe not from my theme park experiences above. The only other thing that may start to wake people up is if there is a big crash with a severe fire / smoke situation (heaven forbid) with large loss of life, but the survivors all confirm that the aisles were blocked by people retrieving cabin baggage.

I came back last night on a packed A320 on Easyjet. Huge amounts of cabin bags ranging from laptops, passports, Duty Free and dirty washing all together, Tired children, Travelers who had"visited the bar" before boarding and those who only thought of themselves and their baggage, I shudder to think how long it would have taken to clear the plane.

After this and BA at LAS last year, I favour locking the bins would also stop who get up to get their bag as soon as the aircraft has slowed below about 70 knots. However I can understand the need for "essentials" a passport, phone and wallet.

Easyjet did enforce only small bags under seats rule, why not lock the bins, but allow travellers a small handbag/man bag which could be taken off the plane far more easily than a weeks dirty undies!!! If everyone had their documents close by them, could this assist identification in case of a tragedy??

A lifetimes ban maybe too late for someone who has perished as a result of someone saving a bag and delaying someone else escaping???