The FAA wants airlines to stress it again, and stronger: In an emergency evacuation, get yourself off and leave your bags.
Recent incidents have shown that many passengers aren’t taking that rule seriously, and pictures and videos online show many passengers with bags. The FAA’s statement, in a Safety Alert for Air Operators published Friday, says that “Passengers have taken their carry-on items with them on a number of recent evacuations. This slows the evacuation and puts lives at risk. Carry-on items also can damage emergency slides.”
The SAFO instructs that “Airlines should re-evaluate their emergency evacuation procedures, flight-crew training, announcements and commands to ensure passengers understand they must leave carry-on items behind during an emergency evacuation,” and that passengers should be reminded that there are no exceptions to this rule.
It did not address the issue of getting passengers to pay attention to safety briefings.
