Factbox: Evacuation from burning JAL jet helped by passengers leaving bags
02/01/2024 17:29
By Tim Hepher and Allison Lampert
PARIS/MONTREAL, Jan 2 (Reuters) - All 379 people aboard
a Japan Airlines airliner escaped after a collision with a Coast
Guard aircraft at Tokyo's Haneda airport that killed five of six
crew on the smaller aircraft on Tuesday.
Video showed passengers being evacuated from the burning
Airbus A350 by escape slides in relative calm and apparently
without hand luggage, in an operation hailed as a "miracle".
Aviation safety agencies have warned for years that pausing
to collect carry-on baggage risks lives during an evacuation.
Following are major milestones in passenger aircraft
evacuations in recent decades:
THE 1980s
Evacuation has been a key safety priority since at least the
mid-1980s, when a British Airtours Boeing 737 was engulfed in
flames at Manchester airport in Britain, killing 55 people.
Investigators of the 1985 disaster said the biggest cause of
death was smoke inhalation following delays in opening doors and
restricted access to emergency exits.
SAFETY STUDY
A 2000 U.S. safety study said that on average, an airliner
evacuation for whatever cause happens every 11 days. Such events
typically only make headlines when fire is involved, but have
led to improvements in door mechanisms and emergency lighting.
However, new challenges are arising from the amount of
luggage passengers are allowed to take on board.
Air crash investigators have recommended stronger in-flight
briefings to urge passengers to leave behind those belongings
when ordered to evacuate - but often with little effect.
'REMARKABLE'
In 2016, amateur video showed passengers blocking aisles and
grabbing bags from overhead bins as the cabin of an Emirates jet
filled with smoke in Dubai. Cabin crew were praised after
managing to evacuate all 300 people, despite the panic.
In 2018, Britain's Royal Aeronautical Society recommended
the automatic locking of overhead bins following a crash
landing, noting that passengers often ignore safety briefings.
“It's clearly a benefit if you're not carrying your
baggage," Steve Creamer, an aviation safety consultant and
former senior director at the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO), said following Tuesday's Tokyo crash.
"It’s pretty remarkable that they got everybody off the
airplane. That says a lot about the flight crew and the
discipline of the people on board."
(Reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris, Allison Lampert in Montreal
Editing by Mark Potter)
((tim.hepher@thomsonreuters.com; +33 1 49 49 54 52; Reuters
Messaging: tim.hepher.thomsonreuters@reuters.net))