San Francisco 777 Crash: Why Did Evacuating Passengers Grab Bags Before Children?

Photo Credit: GettyWhen seconds can mean the difference between life and death in escaping an aircraft accident, it was startling to see so many photographs from the crash of Asiana Flight 214 at San Francisco International Airport of people carrying out bags, including roll aboards that must have come out of the overhead luggage bins. At least one man interviewed in the New York Times indicated that he grabbed his bags and then his child. In that order. All I can say is that it was very fortunate that the fire was slow to spread.

While aircraft manufacturers like Boeing BA +0.16% have done much in the last couple of decades to improve survivability in aircraft accidents by including materials that are fire-retardant, the fact remains that accidents such as this one often result in ruptured fuel lines or fuel tanks. Once aviation fuel spills, the chances are great that it will come in contact with a hot surface like an engine and ignite. Or the fuel could ignite for other reasons, including sparks caused by the fuselage skidding along the tarmac.

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