Overview
- IATA launched the campaign on Monday, June 8 at its annual meeting in Rio de Janeiro to urge passengers to leave all baggage behind during aircraft evacuations.
- The initiative is backed by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and is framed as an industry-wide education drive informed by behavioral science.
- IATA commissioned a four-market survey that found gaps in passenger knowledge: 80% said they knew what to do in an evacuation but only 61% correctly said to leave belongings, while about one in ten admitted they might still take bags.
- The campaign uses a memorable, behaviorally designed video that delivers five core messages — pay attention to crew, leave baggage, do not film, keep moving, and exit quickly — and it explains that bags can block aisles, hide path lighting and damage evacuation slides.
- Industry officials say the campaign is the first step and have signalled that if education does not change behaviour, measures such as fines or automatically locking overhead bins could be considered.