An off-duty flight attendant has been caught on camera evacuating a plane via an emergency slide with a large carry-on handbag slung over her shoulder after a portable battery caught fire as the plane was taxiing to the gate last week.
Although the incident went by at the time with little attention paid to it, the video of the flight attendant seemingly ignoring safety rules that require everyone to leave everything behind in the event of an emergency evacuation is now going viral.
The evacuation occurred on Southwest flight WN-3077, which had just landed at Reno/Tahoe International Airport after an otherwise uneventful flight of less than one hour from Las Vegas on March 19.
As the 10-year-old Boeing 737 was arriving at the gate, a laptop computer belonging to one of the passengers overheated and suddenly caught fire. With the device pouring out smoke, a decision was made to quickly evacuate the aircraft via emergency slides.
The evacuation appeared to pass off without incident and flight attendants were able to extinguish the fire without any injuries being reported.
Shortly after the incident, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported: “After arriving in the gate area, the flight crew reported a battery fire on board. Passengers evacuated the aircraft and were escorted back into the terminal.”
The FAA says it will be investigating the occurrence but provided few other details.
One of the passengers onboard the airplane, however, took a cellphone video of the evacuation process from outside the plane, capturing the moment that a woman wearing a flight attendant uniform struggles to get on the emergency slide at the rear of the plane as she has a large handbag on her shoulder.
After being helped off the slide by two ground workers, the woman readjusted her bag and walked off as if nothing had happened.
Southwest says that the flight attendant captured on camera was off-duty, saying in a statement: “All 117 passengers on Southwest Airlines Flight 3077 evacuated safely at Reno International Airport on March 19 after a passenger’s laptop battery caught fire during deplaning.”
“Passengers in the back of the aircraft used the rear emergency slides, while those in the front of the plane exited through the front door.”
The statement continued: “Preliminary reports indicated the passenger whose laptop caught fire would seek treatment for burns, but no Customers were injured during evacuation. The aircraft was taken out of service pending maintenance and inspection.”
“Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of its Customers and Employees. The incident remains under investigation.”
The incident is reminiscent of an event that took place in India in May 2024 when a flight attendant was filmed sliding down an emergency evacuation slide her full-sized carry-on case after a bomb threat had been made against an IndiGo Airlines plane at Delhi Airport.
Some of the crew members were commended for their role in the evacuation, including one cabin crew member who was caught on video helping an elderly woman evacuate the aircraft via an overwing emergency exit.
But at least two other crew members were seen leaving their aircraft with their own bags. Along with the flight attendant who left the plane with her carry-on case was a crew member who appeared to be a pilot who was spotted sliding down the slide with his briefcase.
Matt’s take
I’ve written many times before about my opinion of evacuating an airplane via emergency slides and how this should be reserved only for incidents where the risk of injury is so immediate that a slide evacuation is absolutely necessary.
In the case of an anonymous bomb threat, it is hard to justify an evacuation via emergency slides, although a lithium battery fire is more of a debatable situation.
After all, in January, an Air Busan Airbus A320 was completely gutted by fire after a portable battery pack caught fire in an overhead locker as the plane was preparing for departure at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea.
Thankfully, no one onboard was seriously injured because of the quick evacuation via emergency slides.
That being said, when passengers (and it would appear flight attendants) don’t have any sense of urgency or danger from the unfolding incident and the call to evacuate, it seems as if they are much more likely to evacuate with their personal belongings.
What garbage. Making a big thing out of nothing. If she was last off, then who cares.
That is not a Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant. That is not in their uniform repertoire.
It looks bad, but it is hard to tell what the details are. Was she one of the last people off the plane? That would make a difference to me. Was it some piece of equipment she was supposed to evacuate with? I doubt it, but I’m not 100% sure.
Looks like a large purse to me not a carryon
Unfortunately, one fact of life is that optics frequently, if not almost always, outweigh anything else. The off-duty FA was likely amongst the last to evacuate at which point I’m sure that the small laptop fire had been extinguished. With that knowledge, it’s hard to justify leaving behind a carry-on that likely would have been a lengthy wait to retrieve, especially if the FA had just arrived and was scheduled to work an outbound flight that same night or first thing next morning. Traveling public however, will not consider the rationality behind this. All the public sees is a FA evacuating with baggage when we are instructed to do the exact opposite. If only people thought more broadly. A trained FA who had knowledge of a threat being terminated and who has a soon flight to work makes perfect sense to take her bag. She needs it for her next flights.
Do as I say not as I do.