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to take their bags because it was not a ‘full emergency’ situation. One passenger was allowed to send his cabin bag down the chute ahead of him, putting passengers below at risk. A mother with her baby and a passenger with special medication were also allowed to take their bags. As passengers came down from the upper deck, a bottleneck built up in the cabin and the slide at the very front of the plane was deployed. Because the jet was tipped on its nose, the slope of the emergency chute at the front of the plane was so shallow that people could walk down it. At the tail it was a different story when, to alleviate the crush in the middle of the plane, the rear door, R5, was opened. The angle of the plane meant the tail was up in the air. The slope of the emergency chute was so steep that thirteen passengers refused to go down it. It was ‘more like a rubber cliff,’ one passenger told reporters.13

Many of the 38 injuries arising from the crash of QF1 in Bangkok came from the evacuation. None of the injuries were serious – 17 people sustained whiplash or bruising, three were struck by dislodged panels and 13 were injured during the evacuation. More than half of those occurred on the near vertical incline of the emergency chute at the tail of the plane. One passenger literally somersaulted down the slide. ‘We were instructed to use slide five, however this was a particularly steep slide,’ another passenger told the Fairfax journalists. ‘With unwilling small children, my wife argued with the steward until a passenger or another steward suggested to use the forward exits as they were closer to the ground.’14 A total of 37 people used the rear slide and seven of those were injured.

As the passengers slid down the emergency chutes, the relief Qantas crew, who had been waiting for the plane in Bangkok, clambered into the cabin and were summarily told by the captain to leave. Their lack of knowledge of the ‘terrain, wreckage and cargo’ exposed them to ‘potential injury’, said the ATSB report.15 The first officer secured the flight deck. Meanwhile, the off-duty pilot travelling as a passenger relieved a cabin crew member at one of the two front doors to assist the final passengers out of the plane, while the crew conducted a final check to ensure all the passengers had left.

On the ground, things were not much clearer. Seemingly oblivious to the possible risks of leaking fuel, Thai ground staff stood and watched the evacuation while calmly smoking cigarettes. Only just over half the passengers were told what to do when they got to the bottom of the chutes. Around three-quarters of them were given a hand at the bottom of the emergency chutes but only 52 per cent were told where to go next. Those who did receive instructions were told to go round the front of the aircraft and wait on the other side for buses. Most of the remaining passengers simply followed them. The Airport Authority of Thailand later noted that there were ‘some deficiencies in the coordination between appropriate parties at the accident site’.16

With the plane on the ground and the passengers safe, the fallout began. Fifteen passengers reported suffering psychological distress as a result of the accident. One of those was Heather Rollo. She received psychiatric and psychological treatment for her terror of flying. ‘I’m petrified. Even a little air pocket now and I’m convinced I am going to die,’ she told the Australian. It is so bad that she has to take a Valium to calm her and insists on being inside the cockpit during landing. ‘For me that’s part of the closure.’ She lodged a complaint with Qantas when the family returned from its trip two weeks later and received a reply from Qantas Chief Executive James Strong after a month and a half, which ‘waffled on’ about the accident’s ‘general inconvenience’ and ‘disruption’ to their travel plans. The newspaper reported that each passenger received $1,000 compensation from the airline in return for signing confidentiality clauses.17

Photographs of the jet nose-down on the grass flashed around the world. Qantas went into