GENEVA -- IATA will create a public campaign next year aimed at urging flyers to leave carry-on bags behind during evacuations. The effort comes amid examples, often shared on social media, of flyers evacuating planes with luggage in hand, despite cabin crew routinely instructing against such behavior.
"These images are very worrying for us, and we intend to do more research as we go through the year into these events to try and better understand what is happening," IATA director general Willie Walsh said at the trade group's Dec. 9 Global Media Day. "But past investigations and research into this phenomenon clearly demonstrates that you are putting not just yourself but other passengers at risk if you stop to try and retrieve items from the overhead bins."
The issue is particularly problematic in North America, said Nick Careen, IATA's senior vice president of operations, safety and security.
In one well-publicized case from last August, an American Airlines plane in Denver was evacuated on the runway when the landing gear caught fire before takeoff. Video footage showed several passengers going down the evacuation slide, bags in hand. One man, carrying a suitcase and a child, lost his balance and fell after hurriedly getting off the slide and beginning to run.
In September, citing a number of similar incidents during recent evacuations, the FAA issued a formal safety alert to airlines.
"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," the FAA said at that time.
Among the FAA's recommendations to airlines was that they conduct passenger outreach and education campaigns.
Under international norms and FAA regulations, aircraft must be able to be evacuated within 90 seconds, a standard IATA acknowledges is not being met. "The 90-second rule, we're not close to that," Careen said.
Even the much-commended early 2024 evacuation of a Japan Airlines Airbus A350-900, in which everyone escaped alive from an aircraft engulfed in flames on a runway at Tokyo Haneda Airport, took 18 minutes despite passengers being lauded for following evacuation protocols.
Careen said IATA's upcoming public information campaign will follow the model of its current multimedia digital campaign that helps travelers fly safely with lithium batteries. It features a combination of video and written assets for airlines and airports to adapt and put forward to passengers on digital and social media channels.
One 84-second video depicts animated cellphones, power packs and other battery-powered devices along with advice on lithium battery best practices for flyers.
Looking into why
IATA also said it plans to undertake research on the psychological factors that lead people to value carry-ons at risk of their lives. Results of the study are targeted for a release in June, when the trade group holds its annual general meeting, Careen said.
The issue of carry-on retrievals during evacuations is far from a new one. A National Transportation Safety Board study in 2000 investigated 46 accidents between 1997 and 1999 involving 2,651 passengers. Out of 419 passengers who reported bringing carry-on baggage, 208 said they attempted to evacuate with their bags.
A highly publicized 2016 American Airlines evacuation at Chicago O'Hare, in which flyers exited the plane with carry-on luggage as an engine fire raged, was the catalyst for an FAA review of various studies that have been conducted on the issue through the years. That resulting report concluded that baggage retrievals from overhead bins delay evacuation but called for studies that focused on the impact of evacuating with bags that had been stowed under a seat.
One 2023 review of comments on social media found that the most common reasons people take their bags are because they believe it is safe or to retrieve valuables or medication.