Three hundred people, 226 of them Indians, had a narrow escape on Wednesday when a packed Thiruvananthapuram-Dubai Emirates flight crash-landed and caught fire. All 300 people on board were evacuated safely and immediately. Video footage & pictures showed smoke billowing out of the Boeing 777 after the accident.

While the cause of the accident is not yet clear, pictures of the plane indicated that the front landing gear collapsed which caused the plane to slide.

Soon, a video of the same incident went viral where passengers were heard screaming ‘laptop’ and even trying to get their bags from the overhead compartments. Even while, others were trying to make a dash for the emergency exit.

The video shows cabin crew and people trying to tell the passengers to “leave their bags, jump on the slide… this way this way”. The nerve-chilling video was shared by thousands of people, including one flight attendant from Abu Dhabi. In the post, the guy criticized Indians, calling them ‘rats’, for trying to collect their bags instead of getting back to safety instantly.

After the rant was criticized by several people on social media, the flight attendant deleted the post and apologized for it.

But that’s not the end of it. If the allegations levelled by former union minister Shashi Tharoor against the airlines are true, then the airlines Emirates need to do some explaining about this discrimination. The minister, in a Facebook post, wrote that the aircraft operating on its Kerala routes are of “visibly inferior to the aircraft on Emirates’ European sectors”. Read full post here:

While a lot of people debated on social media about the reason why the passengers lunged for their bags, risking their lives, this guy’s take on the whole incident will give you a fresh perspective. In 25 tweets, Twitter user Praveen Gopal Krishnan from Bengaluru explained the reason why passengers behaved the way they did

I have been thinking about this Emirates flight thing, and how everyone is indignant that passengers were trying to take bags while exiting. — PGK (@peegeekay) August 4, 2016

Life as an expat in the Gulf is pretty surreal. And hard to explain. I have tried to find parallels but I am struggling to find one like it. — PGK (@peegeekay) August 4, 2016

Traffic Police. Landlords. Banks. Employers. You are at the mercy of all of them. And usually just a bad day away from getting into trouble. — PGK (@peegeekay) August 4, 2016

For a long time, while I was growing up, expats weren’t even allowed to own certain types of vehicles – like 4 wheel drives. No idea why. — PGK (@peegeekay) August 4, 2016

What makes it worse is that this isn’t a stated bias, but that it’s arbitrary and willfully unaccountable, with little or no recourse. — PGK (@peegeekay) August 4, 2016

You could go to the Indian Embassy, and I think it's probably the most depressing, soul-crushing place in the Middle East. — PGK (@peegeekay) August 4, 2016

In such situations, I have seen immigrants cling to their possessions like their lives depended on it. Really. — PGK (@peegeekay) August 4, 2016

As most Gulf kids will tell you, the folder in the cupboard containing the passports is akin to the first born child of the family. — PGK (@peegeekay) August 4, 2016

The only thing you had were your possessions. You kept them securely. You saved receipts and the packaging it came in. Just in case. — PGK (@peegeekay) August 4, 2016

One of my uncles worked there for 32 years in one company. Unbroken. Throughout. When he left the office gifted him a small coffee maker. — PGK (@peegeekay) August 4, 2016

And yes, Gulf sector flights are painful. And yes, it’s filled with people mobbing around. And are painful to flight attendants. All true. — PGK (@peegeekay) August 4, 2016