Many passengers evacuated with luggage from smoky plane: report

December 21, 2017

Tokyo- Many passengers tried to carry their luggage with them when they evacuated from a Boeing 737-800 jet of Japan Airlines after smoke was detected in its cabin in February last year, the Japan Transport Safety Board said in its investigation report on Thursday.

In the incident, which took place at New Chitose Airport in the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido, three passengers got injured when they exited the plane on emergency chutes.

The report noted that the problem of passengers not following crew members' instructions to leave their luggage behind when they evacuate has occurred repeatedly in the past.

It urged the transport ministry and airlines to make sure aircraft passengers are informed of the rules they need to follow in case of emergency evacuation.

According to the safety board, carrying luggage may force passengers to spend extra time to evacuate and accidentally hurt other passengers. In serious cases, escape slides may get damaged by luggage or high heels and become unavailable for use.

When passengers evacuated from a United Airlines plane at Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, in 1998, a woman in her 60s collided against a suitcase of another passenger when she was going down an emergency chute and broke her index finger.

In the case of the JAL aircraft in Hokkaido, many of the 159 passengers took out their luggage from overhead bins in the cabin, although the cabin attendants asked them not to do so with loud voices.

As the luggage taken away by the cabin attendants got piled up in front of the cockpit, the pilot and the co-pilot were unable to step out and help out with the evacuation activities, according to the report. Jiji Press