Higher sorry than protected, apparently.
Footage of an emergency Southwest Airlines plane landing on Sunday has emerged, however it’s what the passengers did while evacuating that’s catching people’s attention.
The flight was en route from Havana to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, last weekend when its nose and one in every of its engines hit birds.
The plane began to fill with smoke, and the flight was forced to show around back to Cuba.
Luckily, none of its 147 passengers and 6 crew members were injured.
Nevertheless, it appears lots of the passengers didn’t follow standard evacuation rules, as footage of the landing aftermath posted on Twitter showed people posing for selfies on a wing and clutching their luggage as they went down the emergency slide.
Within the clip posted by @fl360aero, a few of those that evacuated to the wing of the airplane had whipped out their cell phones, as others sauntered down the slide as if nothing had happened, still holding their suitcases.
“A Southwest flight departing Havana, Cuba, for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Sunday morning experienced bird strikes to an engine and the aircraft’s nose shortly after takeoff,” the Southwest PR team wrote to The Post on Thursday afternoon.
“Our Pilots followed trained procedures and safely returned to Havana where Customers evacuated the aircraft cabin via slides on account of the statement of smoke.
“We commend the swift, skilled actions of our Pilots and Flight Attendants in response to the event. We apologize to our Customers for the inconvenience and reached out to deal with their needs and offer support.”
Airlines don’t recommend passengers taking their luggage off within the case of an emergency landing.
In 2019, the Latest York Times even published an article detailing all the reasons for leaving bags on a plane within the event of a catastrophe.
In response to the footage, many Twitter users called out the passengers’ “stupidity.”
“It appears safety and emergency videos are an utter waste of time,” one person wrote.
One other agreed, saying, “So incredibly silly — you taking your luggage and waisting time evacuating an aircraft puts peoples lives in danger — hope that basically special tooth brush is price someone dying for.”
“In the event you’re grabbing your luggage from the overhead bin during an evacuation, I’m going right excessive of you,” a commenter added. “Bunch of idiots.”
Others even called for the passengers who grabbed their luggage before exiting the plane to be legally penalized.
“There needs to be federal penalties in case you take your bag off a plane in an emergency situation,” one person identified. “The time it takes to get a bag may be the time it takes to avoid wasting one other human’s life.”
Nevertheless, despite being slammed for his or her seeming nonchalance, some passengers recall widespread fright through the incident, telling NBC 6 South Florida that many individuals “yelled out in panic” because the cabin full of smoke.
“People began taking matters into their very own hands and by force were punching the roof to eject the masks,” one passenger, Steven Rodriguez, told the outlet.
“And folks had bloody knuckles and all because they were punching the roof. There have been little kids on the plane and elderly women.”
An investigation is underway, the news outlet reported.
