Plane passengers slammed for grabbing selfies during evacuation: ‘Incredibly stupid’
Better sorry than safe, apparently.
Footage of an emergency Southwest Airlines plane landing on Sunday has emerged, but it’s what the passengers did while evacuating that is catching people’s attention.
The flight was en route from Havana, Cuba, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, last weekend when it was forced to land after one of its engines and nose hit birds.
The plane began to fill with smoke, and the flight was forced to turn around back to Cuba.
Luckily, none of its 147 passengers and six crew members were injured.
However, it looked like many of the passengers did not follow standard evacuation rules, as footage of the landing aftermath was posted on Twitter, showing people posing for selfies on a wing and clutching their luggage as they slid down the emergency slide.
![The Southwest Airlines flight was en route from Havana, Cuba, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Sunday when it was forced to land after hitting birds on one of its engines and nose in the air, but passengers were roasted for their evacuation behavior.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007947957.jpg?w=610)
![On Twitter, users criticized passengers for taking selfies of the evacuation and bringing their luggage with them.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007947956.jpg?w=644)
In the clip posted by @fl360aero, some of those who 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 due to the observation of smoke.
“We commend the swift, professional actions of our Pilots and Flight Attendants in response to the event. We apologize to our Customers for the inconvenience and reached out to address their needs and offer support.”
As shown on the emergency videos on airplanes before you take off, airlines absolutely do not recommend taking your luggage off in case of an emergency landing.
In 2019, The New York Times even published an article detailing all of the reasons why you should leave your bags on the plane in the event of a catastrophe.
In the response to the footage, many Twitter users called out the passengers’ “stupidity” and criticized them for their responses.
![Someone on Twitter even called for passengers who brought their bags on the emergency slide to be federally charged.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007947955.jpg?w=631)
![Passengers were seen evacuating the flight after it turned back around to Cuba.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007947952.jpg?w=569)
![Passengers were seen taking selfies on the wing where they evacuated.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007947958.jpg?w=610)
“It appears safety and emergency videos are an utter waste of time…” one person wrote.
Another agreed, saying, “So incredibly stupid – you taking your luggage and waisting time evacuating an aircraft puts peoples lives at risk – hope that really special tooth brush is worth someone dying for.”
“If you’re grabbing your luggage from the overhead bin during an evacuation, I’m going right over the top of you,” someone else seconded. “Bunch of idiots.”
Others even called for the passengers who grabbed their luggage before exiting the plane to be legally penalized.
“There should be federal penalties if you take your bag off a plane in an emergency situation,” one viewer pointed out. “The time it takes to get a bag can be the time it takes to save another human’s life.”
However, despite being slammed for the behavior, some passengers were extremely frightened by the scary incident, telling NBC 6 South Florida that many people “yelled out in panic” as the cabin filled with smoke.
“People started taking matters into their own hands and by force were punching the roof to eject the masks,” one passenger named Steven Rodriguez told the outlet.
“And people had bloody knuckles and all because they were punching the roof. There were little kids on the plane and elderly women.”
An investigation is underway, the news outlet reported.