A couple of days ago, Aeroflot flight SU1492 from Moscow to Murmansk was hit by lightning during take off. It seemed to have knocked down part of the equipment of the plane so the pilot decided to return to the airport immediately. Sadly the plane crashed and a fire started in the engine. 41 people lost their lives during that event.
Preliminary reports indicate that some people were stuck in the plane during evacuation while others were trying to retrieve their hand luggages. Pictures and videos of the accident show people leaving the aircraft with their hand luggages. Sadly, it seems that people lost their lives as others wanted to take their belonging with them.
During the safety briefing, you’re always reminded to leave everything behind in an emergency. What’s more valuable? Your life or your laptop? With a bag, you risk breaking the slide, you cannot run as efficiently and you risk blocking people behind you.
To be allowed to fly commercially, an airplane has to go through a lot of tests. One of these is the evacuation test. The manufacturer has to show they can evacuate the airplane in under 90 seconds… That’s very short. Check out below the video showing the evacuation of the largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380. It takes 78 seconds to evacuate more than 800 people…. in the dark… But they’re leaving their bags behind.
So once again, next time you’re flying, listen to the safety briefing and remember the single most important advice they’ll give you:
“In case of emergency, leave all your belongings behind”
It might make the difference between life and death.
Featured image courtesy of Flightradar24.com