How not to evacuate!
On 2 October 2021, Spirit Airlines flight NK3044, from Atlantic City (NJ) to Fort Lauderdale (FL) and operated by Airbus A320 N922NK (msn 9341), with 105 passengers and seven crew, was accelerating for take-off from Atlantic City's runway 31 when the crew rejected the take-off, advising they had a bird strike and were stopping on the runway.
The Airbus neo slowed down safely and stopped on the runway when the tower queried whether the aircraft needed any assistance, to which the crew replied "roll the trucks please".
A short while later tower advised there appeared to be fire underneath the engine. The crew acknowledged, the fire bell was audible in the background of that transmission, and about a minute later advised they were evacuating the aircraft.
In the ensuing emergency evacuation three passengers and one crew travelling as passenger received minor injuries as result of the evacuation.
A few days later it emerged that an entire fan blade had fractured at its root and separated.
Sadly in this day and age, everything was filmed on several smartphones inside the cabin, including the engine being on fire. The safety instructions clearly state to leave all personal belongings behind in the event of an evacuation, but people were seen taking out their suitcases and carry-ons from the overhead bins, delaying people getting of the slides. And obviously filming an evacuation from both in- and outside the cabin does not help the evacuation at all. We fear that this is the 'new normal', where a small group of people is more concerned with social media and their laptops, than actually getting out of the aircraft as soon as possible...
Here are a few YouTube videos that highlight that point:
Evacuation 1
Evacuation 2