Lessons from United Flight 93

In retrospect, this was bad advice. Similar instructions were even worse advice at the World Trade Center, where people who called 911 were told to remain at their desks. Many fled anyway, made it partway down, and then were told to go back to their desks, or to wait at assembly points in the doomed buildings. Hundreds did as they were told and died as a result. Other hundreds defied authority and survived8230;

It is the nature of authorities to assert authority, and it is hard to imagine officials of anything urging people to pay no attention to official instructions. But there is also some logic here. The policies followed at the World Trade Center seem very wrong in hindsight. But these rules themselves were the product of hindsight. During the first World Trade Center bombing, back in 1993, rescue attempts and fire control were frustrated by the anarchy of thousands fleeing unnecessarily down narrow emergency stairs8230;

Courage and cowardice, obeying instructions and defying them, are all unreliable guides in a crisis. In a way, that8217;s comforting. You can8217;t really get it wrong. You8217;re in the hands of fate or faith, if you8217;ve got it. We celebrate the passengers who rebelled on Flight 93 for their choice, but we surely don8217;t, or shouldn8217;t, blame any of the folks on any of those planes for arriving at a different decision, or none at all.

Excerpted from an article by Michael Kinsley in 8216;The Washington Post8217;, May 13

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