JUMP! JUMP! JUMP! Emirates crew screams while passengers grab their belongings

Passengers block aisles and retrieve belongings from overhead compartments as oxygen masks drop.

What should passengers do in case of an emergency evacuation: 1. Listen to the cabin crew and follow their instructions carefully. 2. Do not block the aisle under any circumstances. Passengers closest to the exit should evacuate first. 3. Do not try to retrieve your belongings from the overhead compartments. You block the aisle when you do this and waste precious seconds. 4. Throw away any pointed objects you may have in your pockets, such as a pen. When passengers jump on the emergency slide they may bump into each other and sharp objects may cause injury. 5. No heavy footwear, especially heavy boots and sandals with heels. These are potential weapons in an uncontrolled jump and can seriously injure fellow passengers. 6. As a general practice, important documents such as passports and paper visas should be kept in your pockets. 7. As a backup plan, always take a picture of your passport's first and last pages, boarding pass and visa before the plane takes off. This way, even if the passport and boarding pass are in a bag in the overhead compartment, you will have all the details with you.

What do you do when a plane makes an emergency landing, smoke fills the cabin, oxygen masks drop down and the cabin crew yells at you to evacuate quickly? You run.

That's what every airline tells their passengers before every flight. Cabin crew members stand along the aisles and demonstrate basic safety measures in case of an emergency even as passengers look away, or wait for the in-flight entertainment system to start. We tell ourselves no such thing will happen to us.

Surely, passengers of Emirates flight EK521 would have thought the same. But they were wrong. And when the time came for them to run out of the plane to save their lives -- the plane was engulfed in flames in a couple of minutes -- they valued their personal belongings more than the lives of their fellow passengers.

In a video going viral since late Wednesday night (watch it on www.khaleejtimes.com/videos), passengers inside the Emirates flight can be seen blocking the aisles and grabbing their belongings from the overhead compartments even as oxygen masks drop down and smoke starts to fill the cabin slowly.

"Please give way. Leave your belongings," a passenger can be heard pleading.

Moments later a cabin crew member can be heard yelling to people to leave their bags and rush to the exit.

"Leave everything, leave your bags, leave everything and move to the slide", the crew member says.

A second later he can be seen running along the aisle, urging people to move out as soon as possible.

Just as the videographer rushes towards the exit -- the phone camera still on and filming -- a female cabin crew member positioned at the exit can be heard screaming "jump, jump, jump".

"Leave your bags behind. Jump everyone. Jump everyone," she continues as passengers -- including the videographer -- jump on the emergency slide.

A second later the camera focuses on the plane's engine, which is on fire.

"Go, go, go, guys quickly," yells another voice from behind, overshadowing the crying and worried screams of children fearful of sliding down.

The 282 passengers on board are lucky to have escaped alive, thanks to the heroic efforts from the well-trained flight crew, who ensured the passengers were evacuated in seconds and well away from harm's way.

But the response from passengers in the face of such a grave emergency drew lots of criticism from social media users.

"There is a fire on the plane and people are bothered about their hand baggage!! You DELAY the evacuation by doing so. These people are very lucky. God was on their side," wrote Jennifer on Facebook.

"I was so shocked to see passengers are worried about their baggage more than their lives. I am glad to hear the Emirates cabin crew forcing them to move and go out and leave the bags. Thank you to Emirates Airline and all the government authorities in handling this crisis in a very efficient way, and my prayers to the fire fighter Eisa who sacrificed his life to save the passengers," said Mahra Al Shamsi.

"I'm so sad to see people more worried about their bags than their lives not only putting their lives in danger but the crew who have to wait for them to evacuate before evacuating themselves," said Lauren Jennifer Duncan.

"Extremely unfortunate to see those poor passengers more concerned about their baggage than the lives of people on board and the rescuer martyred saving such a greedy crowd," Muhammad Shams Ur Rahman wrote.

• Dubai