>As others have pointed out, the 18 minutes include things like stopping the plane. This took under a minute. >The placards should be telling you to follow th

>As others have pointed out, the 18 minutes include things like stopping the plane. This took under a minute. >The placards should be telling you to follow the directions of the crew members, and only if they are not available to assist should you do anything. The placards on almost every aircraft I have flown indicate that in a crash, you should look for smoke, fire, debris or water, and then open the door immediately thereafter. That is because it is good safety practice. You are correct that everywhere in the world you're also instructed to follow crewmember instructions (obviously) but I'm sorry, I'm not going to die because of crew incompetence. Had you followed crewmember instructions you would have likely died with the majority of the passengers in the Sewol disaster, for example, or the majority of the children in the Okawa disaster. I have never needed to disobey a steward's order, but if it is between my life and disobeying a steward I will choose my life every time. >Can you tell if fuel is pooling up near overheated brakes? Probably not. In virtually every crash of this severity the answer to "is there fuel leaking near overheated components" is "yes", which is exactly why it is important to evacuate the aircraft as quickly as possible. >But you know who can? The fire fighters Not if they're not there - yet another example of the gross incompetence displayed by this crash was the slow response by the airport fire services. >It's also risky to evacuate. People hurt themselves going down the slides. It's much riskier to stay inside of a plane that will burn to the ground, which is indeed what happened here.