What Happens If You Get Sucked Out of a Plane? 327
astroengine writes "We've all wondered about it. When flying at 30,000ft, you look around the cramped economy class cabin thinking 'I wonder if I'd survive being sucked out of this plane if a hole, say, just opened above my head?' That's probably around the time that you should fasten your seat belt. According to medical experts interviewed by Discovery News in the wake of the Southwest Airlines gaping hole incident, the rapid depressurization, low oxygen levels and freezing cold would render you unconscious very quickly. Assuming you don't get chopped in half as you exit through the hole and hit the tail, you'd be long dead before you hit the ground. Nice."
Why were experts called on this? (Score:2, Insightful)
I thought this was obvious, even from a non scientific point of view?
Not really (Score:4, Informative)
30,000 feet is about as high as Everest. People have walked up Everest and survived... ...in fact I'm not sure I believe their conclusions. You'd be down to almost 'normal' conditions in about a minute.
People have survived half an hour at altitudes higher than that, eg. Ewa Wisnierska [timesonline.co.uk].
Re:Not really (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not really (Score:5, Insightful)
We're talking about like half of one atmosphere, here. I don't think you're going to get the bends.
Re:Not really (Score:4, Interesting)
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High altitude skydiving is achieved via open air gondolas carried by balloons, meaning that the skydiver is exposed for an extended period of time well in advance of their dive (hence the need for pressure suits and pre-breathing), and is done at altitudes that are roughly three times greater than that of most commercial flights (over 100,000 ft. vs. 30-40,000 ft). In contrast, an airline passenger would be exposed to altitudes that are on par with that of Everest, which people have successfully climbed wit
five meters deep (Score:3)
We're talking about like half of one atmosphere, here. I don't think you're going to get the bends.
That's absolutely correct, the pressure difference is equivalent to coming up from a five meters deep dive. I've done that many times but I never stayed that deep more than a minute or so.
Here's a question for the divers here: do you need special decompression routines if you dive at five meters for long periods?
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So you skydive, freezing like crazy. You're still breathing from 35K feet all the way down. Your speed will still be determined by terminal velocity.
There's that rocky ending. Gravity:it's not just a feeling, it's the law.
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Here's a question for the divers here: do you need special decompression routines if you dive at five meters for long periods?
No. That's the normal depth for doing a safety stop, so why bother? You'd usually run out of air long before you'd hit any nitrogen limits. I sometimes do a minimalist style of diving in the local lakes which involves hitting 10-15 meters while swimming up and down in the water column(chasing fish along cliffs, for what it's worth). I don't even bother with a computer for those.
Re:five meters deep (Score:4, Informative)
Here's a question for the divers here: do you need special decompression routines if you dive at five meters for long periods?
PADI certified diver here. No, you don't, as this depth is too shallow to enable dangerous amounts of nitrogen to dissolve in your blood, at least in time spans you can reasonably stay there without getting trouble with hypothermia and exhaustion. Regular dive tables don't even extend to depths shallower than 10 meters, at which you can stay for more than three hours. I'm not certified to make dives that require decompression, that's pro/military territory, but I believe that 3-7 meters are actually common depths for making your last decompression stop.
On a side note: the bends are a real concern when traveling in aircraft; for instance it's highly discouraged to fly less than 24 hours even after a recreational dive that doesn't require decompression. The pressure in the cabin of a normal jet liner is maintained at a level which corresponds to about 2-3 kilometers above sea level. I'd guess that at least some people would have problems with a sudden decompression at up to 12000 meters, as susceptibility to getting the bends varies greatly from person to person. However, I doubt that it would be severe enough to kill you outright before you reach a lower altitude if you were unlucky enough to be sucked out of the plane. It might be a contributing factor (together with cold and trauma) to a fatal circulatory shock, though.
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Also PADI certified, since 1981. Man Eating Duck knows what he is talking about. GP, GGP, or GGGP - whoever suggested that there might be problems with a 5 meter dive was talking out his ass.
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In fact the GPGGP or GGGP which you are tolazy to scroll up, did not pull anythign about 5 meters being a problem out of his ass.
He asked politely if there is any diver who can clarify if there is a problem at 5 meters already.
angel'o'sphere
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The thing with diving is: nitrogen gas dissolves in blood ABOVE one atmosphere of pressure, but not much at normal pressure. So if you dive beyond 10m you'll have to be careful, coming back up. But going from 800mbar (pressure inside a plane) to 0.36 bar will not make the nitrogen boil.
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The pressure difference between 6000-8000 feet (cabin pressure) and 30000 feet is not big enough to explode you - unlike some rapid decompression accidents (the squeamish probably shouldn't look those up).
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I also think you would hit the ground before freezing would be a factor. In fact, with the exception of hitting another portion of the airframe, I think the entire article was complete rubbish.
I used to skydive from 11.5K ft. That's about 55 seconds of free-fall time (with a safety margin). Extrapolating this to 35K suggests another 2.5 minutes. I am probably not going to asphyxiate in that time, either. Especially since I will be in lower altitudes quite quickly.
Would you be cold? Yes, very. Would yo
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Uhg... oh and if you wanna believe it so much, test it.
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Re:Not really (Score:4, Informative)
What do we need test monkeys for, when we've had a real human "volunteer".
Capt. Timothy Lancaster, British Airways Flight 5390, June 10, 1990. 23,000 feet, 500mph.
One of the cockpit windshields was improperly secured after a repair, and blew out. He was sucked out of the cabin, and his leg caught on the controls. The flight crew managed to grab his feet and hold on through landing, before he made a full egress.
He lost consciousness due to lack of oxygen. In addition, he suffered frostbite, bruising, abrasions, and fractures to his right arm, right wrist, and left thumb, and a dislocated shoulder.
All in all, survivable (and he did). Most of the injuries would have been due to being pulled out the hole, and being pounded against the aircraft.
If someone made a clean exit, not damaging themselves on the edges of the hole or other parts of the aircraft, it's a survivable event. They may or may not lose consciousness, depending on their breathing and personal fear level. i.e., us adrenaline junkies would probably remain calm-ish, and survive through the air.
The least likely part to survive is that unintended intersection between their direction of travel, and a solid mass. (i.e., straight down, and hitting the ground).
As the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy states about flying, "There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. Its knack lies in learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, that provides the difficulties." I don't know of anyone who has managed the essential second part without artificial help.
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That was compared to winning the lottery ten times in a row though. I'd say there are probably a few maneuvers you could pull to maximise your chances of survival though - curl up into a ball for the first while (Heat Escape Lessening Posture), then go limp for the last bit of the fall. Are there things you can do to help mitigate sudden pressure changes, like breathe out all the air in your lungs?
Maybe some people would rather go unconscious given the minimal chances of surviving the impact, but sod that,
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Erhm.... I think the sensible thing to do is to ponder how to avoid it altogether. By the time you get sucked out of that plane, you are a goner. You don't get bonus points for "but he survived to feel the impact" on your autopsy report.
There is no effing achievement for that!
Re:Not really (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't get bonus points for "but he survived to feel the impact" on your autopsy report.
There is no effing achievement for that!
Meh, I'd rather not be put down in my sleep like an ailing pet, thanks. More seriously though, the will to survive is probably the single most important factor in any survival situation, closely followed by knowledge of what to do in your environment. Its shocking how many people just give up, lie down and die, sometimes when help was close at hand. Keeping your spirits up is vital, even if you've just been sucked out of a plane! :D
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You don't get bonus points for "but he survived to feel the impact" on your autopsy report.
There is no effing achievement for that!
Meh, I'd rather not be put down in my sleep like an ailing pet, thanks. More seriously though, the will to survive is probably the single most important factor in any survival situation, closely followed by knowledge of what to do in your environment. Its shocking how many people just give up, lie down and die, sometimes when help was close at hand. Keeping your spirits up is vital, even if you've just been sucked out of a plane! :D
WTF? Who's gonna not have the will to survive? Isn't screaming in fear an indication of this desire?
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WTF? Who's gonna not have the will to survive? Isn't screaming in fear an indication of this desire?
There's a difference between the will to live and the will to survive. Survival means you live by reasoning, determination, training, and actions. Living simply means you continue to breathe until you are found. The will to survive is the mental conditioning of your mind to survive no matter what man, nature, or luck throws at you. Never underestimate the power of the mind.
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WTF? Who's gonna not have the will to survive? Isn't screaming in fear an indication of this desire?
There's a difference between the will to live and the will to survive. Survival means you live by reasoning, determination, training, and actions. Living simply means you continue to breathe until you are found. The will to survive is the mental conditioning of your mind to survive no matter what man, nature, or luck throws at you. Never underestimate the power of the mind.
That's about as useful as saying "whoever wants it more will win the game", along with a list of other mind-over-matter clichés.
Re:Not really (Score:4, Insightful)
That's about as useful as saying "whoever wants it more will win the game", along with a list of other mind-over-matter clichés.
Not really. One example that I can think of (I haven't the details handy) was when two liferafts were deployed from a sinking ship, same equipment in each, same number of people. In one the captain lost the run of himself, didn't keep up discipline, and eventually ended up dying, while the people in his raft were malnourished and near death when recovered. On the other raft however the first mate maintained discipline, kept up spirits, and his guys were able to get into the recovery ship unassisted.
Mental attitude makes all the difference.
Re:Not really (Score:5, Informative)
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No, it's quite possible, though fairly unlikely, that you would survive, You're going to lose most of that 500 MPH forward velocity to wind resistance pretty quickly. Remember that terminal velocity for a person is only about 100-125 MPH.
So the real question that you have to ask is whether you can survive an impact at 100-125 MPH. And the answer is "If you do it right, yes, there's a slim chance." Aim for mud, snow, or trees to cushion your fall.
Thus far, I believe the survival record for free fall f
She wasn't sucked out of the plane... (Score:3)
She remained in the plane, [wikipedia.org] pinned down by a catering trolley - effectively a seat belt.
Also, she was found with a colleague's body on top of her (effectively an air-bag cushion).
Also, the part of the plane she was in crashed into trees on its way down - cushioning the fall.
Also, she was found by a trained medic.
Also, according to her statements she apparently always had rather low blood pressure - which prevented her from bleeding out until she was found.
Re:Not really (Score:5, Funny)
I'd rather be thinking "Hey I can see my house from here, wheeeeeeeee" than spending my last few minutes in blind animal terror. Sure, the last thing going through my mind would probably be my feet, but that's no reason to quit!
Re:Not really (Score:4, Funny)
No, but if you're already a goner you might as well have some fun with it.
I've decided that if I manage to survive the exit and the falling, I'm going to aim for someone's swimming pool and then yell CANNONBALL during my last few seconds. Hopefully someone is around to witness it.
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I think you've just invented a new extreme-sport.
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By the time you get sucked out of that plane, you are a goner.
If anyone actually read TFA, you'd see there's a big hand [discovery.com] just above the jet that would catch you.
Re:Instead of speculating, use real data. (Score:4, Informative)
A pilot was sucked out the cockpit when the windshield blew out. Only his legs remained inside. How about studying real examples for data instead of speculating what might happen.
http://www.businessinsider.com/jet-pilot-sucked-out-2011-4 [businessinsider.com]
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/what-to-do-when-your-pilot-gets-sucked-out-the-plane-window/236860/ [theatlantic.com]
Re:Not really (Score:5, Interesting)
Surviving here is like winning a game of egg-toss where you are the egg. You need to spread your de-acceleration out over the longest distance possible in impact. The equation involved (assuming uniform acceleration) is v^2 = 2 a H where H is the stopping distance and a is the acceleration experienced while stopping. Humans have survived a \approx 100 g, or a stopping distance of roughly one meter for an initial velocity of 45 m/sec (100 mph). They do better, of course, if the stopping distance is 2-3 meters, or if one is travelling more slowly -- the square means that a comes down rapidly with v so that stopping from 38 km/sec (roughly 80 mph, terminal velocity if you have e.g. a large overcoat and "parachute" it to slow your rate of fall) over 2 meters is only 37 g's of acceleration. a > 50 g makes it pretty unlikely to survive.
So what are good targets? Hay rolls out in fields -- good for a bullseye although you need a pretty big one in a soft, plowed field to be carried away with a ruptured spleen and subdural hematoma but alive. Tightly packed pine forest -- acually better, if you avoid skewering directly onto a tree and your head and kidneys take the punching from the branches as they break, because you might slow down over 5 to 10 meters, where the latter reduces a to 20g, easily survivable and you could even walk away from it . Big bushes of any sort better than hard ground, the bigger (taller) and denser the better. Spongy loam better than concrete (maybe a peat bog?). Deep water better than normal ground, but...
Water carries its own risks. It is an incompressible fluid and quite dense and you can't breathe it when unconscious, so hitting it in, say, a belly-flopper will just cause you to pop. Hitting water that is foamy on top (so that the water contains a lot of air bubbles that can act as a shock absorber) is better than hitting still water. Hitting water that has any sort of "splash" underway on the surface is good, as it might let you get a foot into the water on your way down and start to push the water sideways out of the way in some sort of turbulent flow instead of having to just push it all aside in front of you. The usual prescription for survival here is to fall splayed until quite close, then go straight up vertical, feet first, toes pointed (streamline), arms over head, and clench that sphincter for the 100 mph enema! You'll probably break your legs on the impact, but the rest of the shock will be transmitted up your spine, which is actually quite strong, and if your head is at the right angle your spine may not be jammed up into your brain or your head may not whip down so hard that it snaps your neck. In that case, if you aren't knocked out and don't mind dog paddling with possibly splintered leg bones and broken ankles, hey, you might survive long enough for a nearby boat to get you out.
So what are the odds? Miniscule, of course. Teensy. Small indeed. Perhaps not much better than if you do nothing at all and let luck determine if you hit that perfect pine forest or the trash pile at the foam rubber factory. But hey, it's something to do on the way down besides just going "Oooooh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttt....." and watching the ground reach up to swat you into oblivion.
rgb
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which can range from 38 to 54 km/sec
At that point though, you will be on FIRE.
just like a meteor
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rgb
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It does seem to bother the flight attendants and the people who happen to be in the seat next to me, but hey, when they move I have the entire row to myself, right?
rgb
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If your book is anywhere near as entertaining as that comment was, I think I'll have to grab a copy.
Re:Not really (Score:4, Informative)
There is also a section in the Survival Guide (humor) book that you'll see in bookstores from time to time on this, and articles such as http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/safety/4344036 [popularmechanics.com] that again cross-reference previous occurrences. Documented no-airplane instances of survival are pretty rare, but there are a few that stand up to investigative test, and even a website devoted to this one subject (of course): http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/ffresearch.html [greenharbor.com]
Anyway, Enjoy. These sites between them give you most of what is known about what is after all a very unlikely thing. Don't forget your trench coat and "Prove You're No Terrorist -- Fly Naked!" tank-top tee shirt and g-string for your next flight! Just remember that the g-string does not, in the end, help much with the terminal g-force (and what that final pa-da-pam, I'll stop:-).
rgb
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Another survival enhancer (if you have anything on you that is denser than you are) is to drop/throw something straight down so that it enters the water a short time before you do, breaking up the surface tension and mixing at least some air into it. But all of this is a lot to think
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People have walked up Everest and survived, but at a 1-in-10 death rate. And that's for people who are wearing proper clothing, often have bottled oxygen, and have trained for years to be able to survive a slow changeover from 5,000ft to the top.
Comparing that to the average untrained person with no oxygen or warm clothing being instantly taken from 7,000 feet-equivalent to 30,000 feet is pretty ridiculous.
This has sadly happened... (Score:5, Informative)
The plane landed with a huge section of fuselage missing, but the other passengers survived. Not a trip I'd like to be on, and makes the Southwest incident look minor in comparison.
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That wasn't due to depressurization, did you all miss that Mythbusters episode when they shot a hole in the pressurized cabin and nothing scary happened? Aloha airlines was a special incident, the flight attendent was killed when 10 feet of walls and ceiling suddenly peeled off the plane, and the ensuing explosion probably threw her out of the fuselage from where she was standing in the aisle.
Re:This has sadly happened... (Score:5, Interesting)
In any case, planes are design with blow out panels, there's some speculation as to the exact cause of 243, but nevertheless it had a huge impact on aircraft design and safety.
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I'm sorry, but Mythbusters != Science. Mythbusters == staged entertainment.
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That's true. I would much rather trust the random, uninformed ramblings of someone posting on a website to someone who actually goes out and tries something for themselves (and who also have a team of researchers to help out).
In this case, what myth that Mythbusters tested was not the same as what happened on Aloha 243 so there really isn't much point arguing about it now.
Re:This has sadly happened... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This has sadly happened... (Score:5, Informative)
In 1972 a flight attendant survived fall from 10km (Score:2)
My respect for aircraft engineers... (Score:2)
... just SOARED (pun not intended but accepted anyway).
It seems that just because they used a few wrong bolts, that nonetheless looked very similar to the correct ones, that the windshield blew out! I didn't realize an aircraft was built to such safety critical tolerances and that such a simple mistake could lead to a very near fatal accident. To the engineer's credit, this problem seems to be have anticipated, the manual specifically states procedures to prevent this kind of problem.
Makes me realize that
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The body of the Aloha flight 243 flight attendant was never found, so the actual cause of death can only be surmised, not proven.
The way you worded it, merely falling out of the plane was fatal.
However without a body, there is no way to know if falling out of the plane was fatal, or the fall from altitude was fatal, or finally the presumed splashdown in the ocean, or whether she might have survived all of that only to drown or be eaten by a shark.
The cause of death cannot be known for sure.
The only thing re
It's pretty well known... (Score:5, Funny)
....you spend six confusing years on an island with a bunch of strangers and a polar bear.
Hopefully you adapt quickly and learn to hate flashbacks and flashforwards.
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I thought you learned to eat raw fish and make friends with a ball.
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Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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It's got more to do with the speed of the aircraft than it does the altitude.
The airspeed across the open/busted window creates a huge pressure differential, basically sucking the contents out of the space (in that instance, the cockpit).
If you've ever seen the small size of the window in question, and realize that the pilot was sucked halfway out of it, you might understand the level of force we're talking about here.
Re:They must have overlooked this (Score:4, Interesting)
Just to add to this, and to see the theory at work, you can do this simple exercise (like we did at flight school).
Open a can of some liquid. Coke, Pepsi, whatever.
Get a straw, and cut it so that the bottom end can be submerged a bit in the liquid, and the top end is about an inch over the opening in the can.
Blow across the top of the straw.
Liquid will come out, even though you're at the same altitude.
Same concept here, but with 400+ knot windspeed.
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MHC (Score:3)
I'm pretty sure it doesn't count as joining the Mile High Club.
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TFA says "out", not "off"
No (Score:3)
No No No, you're not sucked out of a plane. Sheesh, is Discovery trying to blatantly go for the lurid headline when their own links on the page to the Mythbusters test show nothing happens?
All those hollywood movies are peddling falsehood, and it looks like Discovery is doing the same for profit and pageviews. Sheesh.
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I think the answer is that small holes don't do anything (i.e. don't start sucking loose papers etc towards them), but huge gaping holes in planes might...
MythBusters tested for bullet-sized holes.
Re:No (Score:5, Interesting)
As I said in an earlier post, Aloha Airlines had 20 feet of walls and ceiling suddenly tear off the fuselage. The only death was a flight attendant who was in the aisle at the time, I'm sure the 700 mile an hour wind and immediate turbulence is what made her fall out, not some sudden pressure change of only 8.5psi. Mythbusters tested [kwc.org] it, even detonating explosives on the window in the pressurized plane didn't knock Buster out of his seat.
Hollywood put this idea in everyone's minds that everyone gets sucked out into space, like Goldfinger, if you shoot out a window on a plane. Just doesn't happen that way.
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While you won't get sucked out of a broken window if there is a large enough tear the resulting forces can lift you off the ground. The first commercial passenger jet, the Comet, discovered this when two of the broke up in mid air. They found that the passengers all died from broken necks rather than from the fall. In tests it was discovered that sudden depressurisation was slamming them up into the ceiling. That is why they tell you to put on your seatbelt - if there was a sudden loss of pressure it would
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Yep! People could be blown out of a plane if they're exposed to a strong wind that pushes them out. The sudden depressurization alone is unlikely generate enough force to accelerate a grown up human body out of the plane.
What about long fall survivors ? (Score:5, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Chisov
a bit different (and controversal) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulović
Sign, discovery showing its high standards again (Score:4, Informative)
Okay, couple of things going on here. First: The myth busters episode "proofing" you can't be sucked out of aircraft. This was the movie myth that a small hole wouldn't not cause everything inside to be sucked out. HOWEVER, we are not talking about that here, we are talking about a major hole. In the hawaii incident, there was a gigantic hole, the flight attendant was not sucked out movie style but (probably) swept up by the massive wind force that occurs partly simply because aircraft move so fucking fast. Nobody knows how she met her dead. It might be comforting to think she died instantly and without pain... if that helps you sleep at night.
Another incident involved a pilot being SUCKED out through the window in front of him (showing just how wrong the DISCOVERY mythbuster program is in its logic and research). He was SUCKED out and exposed to the cold and lack of oxygen for a long time AND survived.
Another incident involves an aircraft breaking up in mid air, all died but the family got record damages because experts had shown that they most likely survived the break up and were alive and aware the entire way down. Families were from one of the south american countries, maybe chili if you want to google it (to lazy myself).
The simple fact is that Myth Busters is a great example of bad science where they ignore recorded evidence and then twist the experiment until it doesn't resemble to claim at all. The clearest example was the "myth" of Jaws being able to hit a boat. So they tested the myth of a super sized shark hitting a boat, by using a smaller shark because Jaws was an unrealistic size... well? That is the myth, the myth is NOT real shark doing something real shark don't do.
Same with the being sucked out. There is more then one way, and pressure difference isn't the only one. Air rushing past a hole tends to create a sucking force itself (see how your engine sucks fuel up into the air) and a massive hole would create all kind of secondary forces. According to mythbusters, large buildings don't cause winds to rise to such level that they blow people of their feet because the pressure difference ain't big enough. Well, shucks.
So basically, discovery claims things contradicted by their own programs. Guess that answers who takes discovery serious, ABSOLUTELY NOBODY.
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> He was SUCKED out and exposed to the cold and lack of
> oxygen for a long time AND survived.
um, no. they held on to his legs for the rest of the flight, but it turned out he died a horrible death long before they landed. -40 degree wind blasting at 500 knots for most of an hour will do that to you. wee bit of a wind chill factor on that ride, never mind the fluid dynamics of trying to breath in those conditions.
Mod parent down, not informative... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sign, discovery showing its high standards agai (Score:5, Insightful)
What happened to the pilot and what the Mythbusters did are two completely different things. By the way, don't you remember when one of the front windows of the plane they were using blew out and sucked everything from the cockpit, including seat cushions, out the window? But that wasn't their test, their test was if a bullet hole would cause catastrophic failure, which it didn't.
Do you know how silly that is? I guess they should next test if humans can fly since Super Man can do it.... but somehow they need to find a real superhuman first. What could would it be for a fantasy shark do fantasy damage? Their test was if a great white could actually do that type of damage. In order to test something worthwhile, they tried to make the scenario as realistic as they could.
I'm not going to say Mythbusters does everything right all the time. But your are trying to compare apples to oranges with your examples.
It ain't necessarily so (Score:5, Interesting)
According to several of the police officers and volunteer helpers at the Lockerbie incident (Pan Am flight 103) whom I have personally spoken to, a substantial number of the passengers were not dead when initially found, although none survived. The cockpit came down in a field 150 metres from the house of a friend of mine. In the opinion of those witnesses what killed the passengers was injuries sustained in their impact with the ground, not the fall itself.
Re:It ain't necessarily so (Score:5, Informative)
Answer a question? (Score:2)
I used to design software for aircraft pressurization systems, so have come across a lot of information about decompression effects et al.
I was told that wind forces during a fall tend to remove clothing - so that bodies are invariably found in various stages of undress - some completely naked. The victims are unconscious, so take no action to prevent it.
I always thought that was bizarre (which is probably why it has stuck in my memory). Can you confirm or deny this?
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It depends... (Score:2)
Low oxygen perhaps compensated by speed of descent (Score:2)
Assuming that you found yourself sucked out of the cabin intact, perhaps low oxygen would not have to be a problem. It certainly would be if you were stationary at that altitude, but in this case you're falling. The question is, if you were falling face down in a free-fall position (belly to Earth), would the force of the air entering your mouth at terminal velocity (at least 195 km/h) increase the pressure of the air in your lungs enough to compensate for the altitude?
Remember, it's not the fraction of
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You've the problem of your mouth and throat instantly icing over at -50c to deal with then. Better to conserve heat and hold your breath until you are a bit lower.
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If my estimations are correct, I highly doubt that at 30,000 feet terminal velocity would be above Mach 0.4. At that speed, pressure increase woul
I think this article has better data (Score:2)
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/safety/4344036 [popularmechanics.com]
Don't Panic! (Score:2)
If you watched the movies you'd know it's always the megalomaniac villain that gets sucked out of the airplane, not the hero.
You do not get sucked out of a plane... (Score:2)
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...and vacuum cleaners don't suck up dirt. The air in the room pushes the dirt into the vacuum cleaner.
Article is bullshit (Score:2)
Back in the early 1900's the papers would quote doctor's who would say that people who fell out of a plane at 5k likely died of a heart attack before hitting the ground. I'm sure it made people feel all warm and fuzzy but it was complete bullshit.
People jump from planes at 24k ft, 30k isn't that much higher. What would most likely happen is you'd pass out due to lack of oxygen then wake back up when you got to a lower altitude. This happened to a friend of mine on a 24k jump because she donated blood the da
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Either google images is lying to me or pornographers are losing the art of creative naming.
Inspired by the headline, I searched for 'gaping hole incident' intending to report on the panoply of eye-gouging horror, yet lo and behold the first page is not only boring, it's SFW. Taking a tip from a result pertaining to a sinkhole, 'absurdly large gaping hole' was similarly disappointing. It was necessary to revert to such pedestrian language as "big gaping hole" to elicit the predicted flood of distended anus p
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You've clearly got the wrong search term there - try 'gaping hole indecent'...
np: Meat Meat Manifesto - Luminol (Answers Come In Dreams)
Re: (Score:2)
You get arrested.
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(unless picked up by a passing spaceship, and the odds against that are astronomical)
No, just infinitely improbable.
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"unless picked up by a passing spaceship, and the odds against that are astronomical"
All you need is an infinite impossibility engine, then.
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I think there's an awful lot of assuming going on. Real people have survived worse than that.
Re:News (Score:4, Funny)
yah, but Real people was finally cancelled in 1984 because of low ratings.
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See? That wouldn't have happened with an iPhone. :P
Re:I've actually thought about this (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember a story of WW2 where a crewmember from a flying fortress (tailgunner I believe) couldn't reach his chute due to fire raging on the plane. So he decided to jump rather than burn. During the fall he got unconscious and fell into a pine forest covered with heavy snow. He survived with minor injuries.
Another case was a parachute jumper who got tangled in the cords, chute produced some drag but impact was still way above 100 Km/hr. Fortunately it was a former swamp and the ground tended to give way a bit. Everything fracturable was fractured on the impact points (she even managed to get those points correct as per training) but the woman remained conscious and survived.
I think though that when you drop out at 30.000 feet you will lose your consciousness quite soon and don't have much say in what happens. Which will usually be for the best.
Re:I've actually thought about this (Score:5, Informative)
And here's the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Alkemade [wikipedia.org]
Simple answer (Score:2)
It sucks!