Plane accident. Photo: Shutterstock During a conference of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) held today (December 9, 2025) in Geneva, Switzerland, the organization's Director General, Willie Walsh, spoke about a concerning phenomenon he said he had seen on social media.
In a post on X, Walsh warned of a concerning trend they have recently observed on social media during aircraft evacuations. Namely, he referred to people who evacuate from planes with their luggages. "When they say evacuate, leave everything behind. Nothing is more important than your life.", he added.
Willie Walsh. Photo: IATA
Walsh is, of course, right. When evacuating an airplane, whether using inflatable emergency slides or otherwise, passengers must leave their luggage behind and not take it with them. Incidentally, when using the slides, shoes must also be removed.
Captain Ilan Menachem addressed the issue in a magazine issued by the Pilots' Association two years ago. Then, the captain wrote: "Passengers take their hand luggage with them during an emergency evacuation, contrary to instructions. Sometimes the question arises, how much does it cost to load a "trolley" onto the plane. A more important question is how much does it cost to unload it. Unfortunately, unloading a trolley from the plane by one passenger could cost the life of another passenger, or even his own."
He added that "a case in which it was claimed that passengers taking hand luggage may have caused the deaths of others was the SU-95 plane crash in Moscow on 5/5/2019. The plane, which was struck by lightning and returned to land, with problems with the steering system, landed hard and bounced into the air twice. On the third hard touch, the passenger seats collapsed, the plane cracked and began to catch fire. An emergency evacuation was carried out. 41 of the 78 passengers on board were killed in the accident. Some of the survivors managed to take their hand luggage with them... It is not clear exactly how many passengers paid with their lives for this delay."