BA London bound plane catches fire in Vegas

[RED-DOG]

Yup, maybe so. The prospect of 5 years in a cell might help though.

OK, let's ban carry-on luggage. Ryanair may not approve, of course.

Nooo... No sledgehammer v walnut approach plz.

Don't ban carry on, most of the time, it's the only luggage we take.

[Doobs]

About 4 weeks ago I was driving on a dual carriageway at about 9pm.  I'd already done about 200 miles so I was fairly tired.  I was just overtaking a row of possibly 3 cars at not much over 70 when something odd happened.

I saw a car coming round a corner from the right in the opposite direction.  I looked at it twice as it looked to be on the wrong carriageway.  It was dark and I just kind of dismissed it as just some kind of illusion and carried on looking ahead. 

Then the car came round the corner and was fully in view and it wa clearly in my line driving directly at me.  At that stage my brain just stopped making sensible decisions.  My first thought was is this my mistake and is this really a dual carriageway.  So I looked at the two lanes on the other side.  I then thought well I am in the right, so he should move.  Only then did I realise there was a barrier and I had to be the one that moved. 

I don't know how fast he was going but we were closing on each other very fast and I probably pulled over less than a second before we collided.  I have no idea how close I was to tge cars I was overtaking as I was just concentrating on not hitting the one in front.  I don't know how much time I had to make these decisions, it may well all have only taken a second or two, but I definitely thought about all these things in the wrong order.  This meant I got very close to at absolute best a very serious injury or two.

I was up with the family last weekend and I mentioned this.  My niece is doing medical training and said this kind of thing is quite well known in psychology.  When your brain is faced with a series of unfamiliar and confusing events it tends to get a bit overloaded and not function very well.  Some people would just freeze completely in that situation and plough into the car in front.

Anyway this is all a long way of saying yes they were been stupid, but you never know how you would react to something like this until you are there.  I'd hope I'd be first out of the door clinging my kids, and having been caught on the verges of a couple of fires, I dont think I am ever going in the overhead lockers.  Suspect there is zero chance my wife leaves our stuff in the overhead lockers. 

Fwiw I read 56 the story of the bradford fire on my holidays (not sure that is wise), and the author survived by running across the stand rather than waiting for the doors to open at the back of the stand with the rest of his family.

[vegaslover]

Found it

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34215283

The second fella talks about the build up of people/luggage on slides causing people to jump and fall off slides.

Thank you.


That's quite telling actually. Perhaps they should start announcing that passengers with luggage will not be allowed to leave.

It's an insoluble problem as long as folks can take hand luggage into the cabin. People don't behave rationally in these situations, no matter how much we lecture & moan.

Maybe the solution is a complete ban on carry-on baggage, barring handbags & manbags.

As long as people can take carry on luggage, they will try to take it with them in an evacuation. You can't legislate against human nature.

In this event, all the injuries were due to hand-luggage causing injuries on the emergency slide. Maybe the USA authorities should prosecute those who did for "endangering life" or whatever?

Imo the size/weight of carry-on luggage allowed nowadays, especially for long-haul, is frankly ridiculous.
If I was in the same situation, I would grab my messenger bag, which has usually got all the passports/documents/money for the family, from under the seat if I had time. Wouldn't even consider getting something from an overhead locker.

Injuries are hardly surprising exiting a plane in an emergency, not exactly something you ever get practice at, fortunately.

[Jon MW]

Found it

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34215283

The second fella talks about the build up of people/luggage on slides causing people to jump and fall off slides.

Thank you.


That's quite telling actually. Perhaps they should start announcing that passengers with luggage will not be allowed to leave.

It's an insoluble problem as long as folks can take hand luggage into the cabin. People don't behave rationally in these situations, no matter how much we lecture & moan.

Maybe the solution is a complete ban on carry-on baggage, barring handbags & manbags.

As long as people can take carry on luggage, they will try to take it with them in an evacuation. You can't legislate against human nature.

In this event, all the injuries were due to hand-luggage causing injuries on the emergency slide. Maybe the USA authorities should prosecute those who did for "endangering life" or whatever?

Imo the size/weight of carry-on luggage allowed nowadays, especially for long-haul, is frankly ridiculous.
If I was in the same situation, I would grab my messenger bag, which has usually got all the passports/documents/money for the family, from under the seat if I had time. Wouldn't even consider getting something from an overhead locker.

Injuries are hardly surprising exiting a plane in an emergency, not exactly something you ever get practice at, fortunately.

The only luggage I carry on planes is a messenger bag - I did notice a lot of people just coming back from America who had more in hand luggage than I had in hold luggage. I think restricting the size of hand luggage to that kind of size would be reasonable and would cause less of a problem in these situations.

Possibly getting rid of overhead lockers - If your bag can't fit under the seat in front of you it's not allowed(?)

[Graham C]

Possibly getting rid of overhead lockers - If your bag can't fit under the seat in front of you it's not allowed(?)

What if you're tall and don't want a bag in your already limited leg room? 

Airlines should just stop people taking suitcases and bloody big bags on.

[tikay]

Possibly getting rid of overhead lockers - If your bag can't fit under the seat in front of you it's not allowed(?)

What if you're tall and don't want a bag in your already limited leg room? 

Airlines should just stop people taking suitcases and bloody big bags on.

Exactly, tallism is rife.

[Jon MW]

Possibly getting rid of overhead lockers - If your bag can't fit under the seat in front of you it's not allowed(?)

What if you're tall and don't want a bag in your already limited leg room? 

Airlines should just stop people taking suitcases and bloody big bags on.

You make a good point - just smaller bags should be enough anyway.