An American Airlines flight aborted takeoff Saturday in Denver after a mechanical issue, likely a blown tyre, caused smoke and visible flames under a Boeing 737 MAX 8. Emergency slides were deployed, and passengers rushed to exit the plane.
A video taken by one of the passengers has emerged, showing people sliding down the chutes and some stumbling and falling upon reaching the runway.
One passenger described hearing a loud ‘boom’ and the plane starting to ‘violently shake’, drifting left. Another reported a ‘big bang and a pop about halfway to takeoff speed’, adding, ‘you could feel [the pilot] start to hit the brakes’.
The Denver Fire Department extinguished the flames within minutes of arriving at the scene. An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the landing gear failure. According to eyewitnesses, the evacuation took roughly ten to fifteen minutes.
Of particular note was the fact that many evacuees were carrying personal belongings, such as backpacks, handbags and carry-on suitcases, despite clear airline safety instructions to leave everything behind during an emergency evacuation.
Such behaviour has been widely criticised online, with many pointing out the risks it poses to fellow passengers.
This isn’t an isolated incident. In previous emergency evacuations, including the fire on Aeroflot Flight 1492 in Moscow in 2019, which resulted in 41 fatalities, delayed exits due to luggage retrieval were identified as a potential contributing factor. While not every case results in fatalities, the risks are real and well documented.
So what happened on that runway and why were the rules not followed?
According to a December 2024 study by the FAA’s Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, this behaviour is not surprising. Passengers frequently ignore safety briefings. Under stress, instinct takes over and people reach for what they consider to be essential items, such as passports, wallets, medication and laptops. Among those who evacuated with bags in past incidents, the most common items retrieved were money or credit cards, work items, keys, and medicines.
In the UK, 35% of surveyed passengers admitted that they would retrieve their belongings during an evacuation, provided they did not think it would endanger others. But are they really in a position to judge that?
One possible solution, already employed by some flight attendants, is to shout a clear, repetitive command such as ‘Leave everything!’ during the evacuation. While this may help, it doesn’t always work. The same FAA study found that, over ten years, passengers took belongings despite warnings in at least 39 cases. While not every case led to injury or delay, the risk remains.
Simulations reviewed by the FAA show that even a small amount of baggage retrieval can significantly increase evacuation time, particularly when the aircraft is full. There is a difference between quickly grabbing a backpack from under a seat and blocking the aisle while pulling down a suitcase. The former may go unnoticed. The latter might cost the person behind you the seconds they didn’t have.
And perhaps that is the uncomfortable truth behind these recurring images. Until passengers truly understand that a few seconds can mean life or death, they will continue to retrieve their belongings.
