Your life or your carry-on?

Must I make a choice? Some of the passengers getting off the wreckage of the Asiana 777 apparently thought they could have both. Not only were they able to survive Saturday's crash in SF, but they were seen schlepping their carry-on items. Needless to say, this is a huge no-no, as flight attendants remind everyone in an emergency. The usual commands" "Open seat belts! Leave everything! Come this way!" But the "leave everything" part is not always followed - and this has been an issue well before the Asiana accident. Before we cast any stones, let's remember that plane crashes are traumatic events in which people don't always act rationally. The real problem is being allowed to carry on so much stuff in the first place, something the airlines cannot easily undo at this point. From the WSJ:

There are multiple reasons to leave belongings behind. Grabbing bags out of overhead bins or from under seats can clog aisles and slow an evacuation. Jumping down a slide designed for rapid movement is jarring and often people clutching bags lose them. Items go flying into other evacuees, flight attendants say. And then there is the need for your arms and hands when you get to the bottom to brace against impact with the ground. "You go down that slide faster than a ride at Six Flags,'' said Sara Nelson, international vice president at the Association of Flight Attendants. Flight attendants are trained to make passengers drop bags at the door before they jump onto slides. But that means doorways get cluttered, potentially slowing evacuation. In a recent evacuation with a possible onboard fire at a U.S. airline, attendants took bags from exiting passengers and stacked them in a galley like cordwood, said Ms. Nelson, a United Airlines flight attendant.