The Federal Aviation Administration asked airlines to evaluate their safety messages to passengers and emphasize the importance of leaving belongings behind in an evacuation.

"Passengers have taken their carry-on items with them on a number of recent evacuations. This slows the evacuation and puts lives at risk. Carry-on items also can damage emergency slides," a statement from the agency said.

Video of passengers evacuating an American Airlines flight recently showed that many brought their carry-on baggage off the plane with them – just the latest in a long line of examples of this issue.

In the Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) published Sept. 19, the FAA suggested that airlines and other aviation outfits take a look and consider tweaks to their evacuation briefings and procedures.

"Airlines should re-evaluate their emergency evacuation procedures, flight-crew training, announcements and commands to ensure passengers understand they must leave carry-on items behind during an emergency evacuation," the agency's statement said.

The SAFO suggests airlines should ensure their safety briefings instruct passengers to leave all bags and belongings behind in the event of an evacuation using standardized, concise messaging that emphasizes there are no exceptions to this rule.

The FAA also suggests airlines highlight the consequences of disobeying crewmember instructions and that safety briefings underscore everyone's collective responsibility around safety in an evacuation.

"Incorporate messaging that appeals to collective responsibility (e.g., 'Help everyone get out safely—leave your bags.')," the guidlines say. "Establish and normalize expected behavior by promoting the idea that 'everyone leaves bags behind.' "

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FAA urges stronger safety briefings after flyers grab carry-ons

Reporting by Zach Wichter, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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