Air passengers ‘risking lives by grabbing bags and filming in emergencies’

Passenger aircraft are designed to be fully evacuated in 90 seconds in an emergency. Photograph: The Photolibrary Wales/Alamy View image in fullscreen Passenger aircraft are designed to be fully evacuated in 90 seconds in an emergency. Photograph: The Photolibrary Wales/Alamy Air passengers ‘risking lives by grabbing bags and filming in emergencies’ Fines might be needed to deter travellers from retrieving hand luggage, says official from airlines body Iata Business live – latest updates Air passengers are increasingly putting lives at risk by filming emergencies and retrieving bags instead of evacuating planes, industry experts have said, with some suggesting fines could be needed. Passenger aircraft are designed to be fully evacuated in 90 seconds in an emergency – but people reaching for hand luggage can significantly increase that time, blocking exits and aisles as well as damaging slides or causing injury. The global airlines body Iata has launched a safety campaign urging customers to “save a life, not a bag”after a number of evacuations have appeared on social media, filmed by passengers, some showing people carrying luggage from burning planes. Nick Careen, the Iata senior vice-president for operations and security, said the first priority was to educate passengers that it was “most important to leave hand baggage behind. We need to drive the message home.” Research on travellers in the UK, US, Singapore and UAE found that only 61% were aware of the rules. “Four in 10 passengers don’t even realise it’s an expectation to leave their shit behind,” Careen said, speaking at the Iata annual meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Asked if he favoured fines, Careen said: “Yes, if we could implement them. It could progress because there are regulators who favour it.” He said airlines and manufacturers were not yet considering potential technical fixes such as automatically locking luggage bins. But Careen said: “Let’s start with education – then we’ll have to be a little bit more draconian, whether it be penalties or a lock on the overhead bin.” The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was seeing an increasing number of passengers not following flight crew instructions during emergencies. FAA administrator Bryan Bedford said: “In those moments, compliance is critical. Passengers must act quickly, follow instructions without hesitation, and leave all belongings behind.” View image in fullscreen Ryanair passengers were evacuated from a plane at Palma airport in Mallorca. Photograph: Twitter X Evacuations are rare in aviation, with only an estimated 30 annually. Last year at least two-UK bound flights were evacuated on the tarmac before departure after suspicions of fire, with 18 passengers suffering minor injuries leaving a Ryanair plane at Palma airport last July. The evacuation was described as “utter carnage” by passengers. Videos of similar events have provoked consternation, both at those stopping to film potentially disastrous events on smart