Possibly, but locking the bins may also trigger a legal certification requirement for cargo compartment space, for a fire suppression system, adding weight, complexity, and the complication of fire agent dispersal in a an occupied area (Halon, Bromide, etc)

 

Don't know for sure, but would assume that wouldn't be needed if the bins are readily accessible to the crew by some means, which they would be.

 

Blow the dust off the crash axe, bin opened, problem solved.

 

There's no fixing this. *

Just remember, you're not the Captain of the Titanic, it's not 1912, we're not even remotely a military organization.

You don't have to go down with the ship waiting for someone to get their bag out of the overhead with an airplane that's on fire.

(*There's a good book called "The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes, and Why" that came out in 2008 that goes into the individual and herd psychology of why people behave the way they do in unfamiliar yet life threatening situations. Airlines base their FA evacuation procedures based on this stuff...yelling at passengers, even swearing, repeating the same consistent message (leave everything), but you can only do so much with people who's current circumstances don't align with any of their decades long mental model of how to perceive the world.)

 

I recall there was mention of 9/11 and occupants of a WTC tower that did not evacuate after the plane strikes on the 1st tower. They just kept working as other workers ran for the exits. They were reassured it was an accident. God rest their souls.

If traveling for pleasure the carry on goes up top and I wear a fanny pack. FYI Weird but Boeing makes a nice cool, big black one.

 

That's kind of similar to how people react under stress in situations such as police encounters/arrests. The police may be shouting commands like "show me your hands" or "don't reach in the glovebox"-type stuff, but it just doesn't register when someone is under extreme stress. It's not as simple as "just should have complied" when the human reaction fight or flight reaction is engaged and they can't process information anymore.

Like someone said, it's probably going to take a massive loss of life before anything changes here to any extent that is effective. If px are pulling that kind of ****, I'm fighting my way out by any means possible, over, under, with force, whatever.

 

I've been on several fires involving loss of firefighter life. In nearly all cases involving windfire-related deaths, going back a century, the circumstances have been close to identical in terms of burn conditions, time of day, etc. It nearly always happens during the "burn period, between about 11 am and 4 pm, under eerily similar conditions of wind, temperature, relative humidity, and in many cases, fuel types, etc. In a threat and safety-focused industry, the same things keep happening the same way, decade after decade. It boggles the mind.

One of the fires most discussed and written about over the years was the loss of life at South Canyon, in Colorado. I came across an article I hadn't read once; it was penned by an experienced firefighter who was commenting on a key point for the smoke jumpers who were killed near the top of the fire. They were trying to outrun the advancing flames that raced up the canyon from below. They were carrying saws, packs, explosives, fuel, and hand tools, and an oft-made point of discussion is that had they ditched the tools, they might have made it. They died very near a safe zone where they would have been clear, or at least able to deploy their shelters. The reality is that one's tools are life, on a fire, and it's nearly unthinkable to drop them. Easy to say, very hard to do. The firefighter penning the article recounted a fire he'd been on, with a rookie sawyer, when they were "running for the black," trying to make it ahead of an advancing flame front, to a safe zone. This firefighter came up on the rookie, who was carrying a chainsaw as he ran (wildfire chain saws are not what you have your garage. They're big, He screamed at the rookie, urging him on, and when the rookie showed no signs of dropping the saw, the experienced firefighter took it from him, shouting as they ran, motivating the rookie to move faster, until they made it to the black (burned area...safety).

"That's when I looked down," he wrote, "and the saw was in my hand." His point was obvious; it can happen to any of us. He knew better, he tore the saw away from the rookie, but didn't let it go, himself...didn't even realize he had it. Fire is a wonderful motivator; it incites reactions that border on primal. We do what we practice, what's reactionary. We just stowed the luggage, we exit in reverse order...we were told to leave the luggage, but that's not what we practiced. We practiced boarding with the luggage and stowing it. That's our only training...as passengers. We seldom rise above our training or experience. Police officers have died in gunfights because they stopped to police up their brass...nearly unimaginable to stop fighting, and pick up the brass casing, and to die for it, but it's happened...because that's how the officers trained, and that's exactly how they fought. People still try to return to the door they entered, even though it's not the closest exit.

I've taken 911 calls from people who were inside the burning structure, asking what they should do. Get out. Seems obvious. It wasn't. I've dropped on burning structures, or tried, when people wouldn't leave their home. I had to abandon the drop and let it burn, because I couldn't drop with them present; they'd have been killed. Their refusal to leave led to the loss of their home. Reason under pressure isn't always good reason.

With proper coaching , people do manage to get off airplanes without luggage, and there will alway be those who will try. Lock those overhead bins, and there will alway be those who die trying to pry them open. Can't leave the big fire, without pookie bear. Sooner or later, there will be a fire that can't be stopped because it was in that bin and it couldn't be reached. The fire damaged the electric lock, or the mechanism, etc.

 

Yo!

Jan 2, 2024: Y'all remember that JAL A350 at Haneda that squashed a Dash-8 that found its way onto an active runway without clearance? The JAL A350 BURNED TO A PILE OF ASH.

But all 379 souls on the JAL plane survived. That's right: not a single death! AND... this is despite the PA not working and lots of foreign nationals who didn't even speak the common languages, as well as 5 of the 8 doors being INOP.

The report noted that no one exited with their hand luggage.

I'm afraid that if this were to happen in Chicago, Atlanta, LA, or Miami... fuggedaboudit! We'd have LOTS of funerals to plan.

It's the culture: the collective vs ME ME ME, as well as obedience to rules.

Have you ever visited Japan? They line up for the subway instead of pushing their way to the front.

 

This is a good observation.

 

The solution is less seats in the jet.