Timeline for Why are commercial flights not equipped with parachutes for the passengers?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 23, 2014 at 11:55 | comment | added | user | "Opening a pressurized cabin at a higher altitude would result in a decrease in altitude due to heavy inflow of air and would make the situation even worse." I don't think that point makes sense. Did you mean outflow of air? | |
| Mar 17, 2014 at 14:47 | comment | added | Chad | @DavidRicherby Impacting the ground at 400mph+ is far less safe. My point is simply that the weight and size restrictions provided in the comment are not valid concerns. The logistics of making sure every flight had the properly sized and rigged chutes for all passengers is another story. | |
| Mar 15, 2014 at 12:45 | comment | added | David Richerby | @Chad Sure, with a large enough parachute, you can drop anything. And I guess there's also the argument that those humvees sure as heck haven't been trained to parachute so it must be theoretically possible for untrained humans to do the same. On the other hand, the practicalities aren't good and humans are much more fragile than humvees. | |
| Mar 13, 2014 at 19:19 | comment | added | Chad | They air drop humvees and several tons of gear from c130's pretty regularly... I am pretty sure that is considerably more than 200 or even 240 or even 440... | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 21:47 | comment | added | Lnafziger | The jump limit that recreational skydiving drop zones use are a limit of the equipment that they have combined with the general concept that most people over that weight are out of shape and therefore are more likely to be injured and are more of a liability. (Note that this isn't always true. Bodybuilders can easily exceed this weight and are in very good shape, and some drop zones have gear for heavier people.) | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 21:30 | comment | added | Xander | Parachutes are also sized to the weight of the jumper. It isn't a one-size-fits-all sort of item, so each passenger would need to be individually fitted with a chute before boarding, rather than just having them available in seats. | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 19:48 | comment | added | reirab | @jwenting I've seen 240 lb. offered as the limit for recreational skydiving, which would include a much larger percentage of the population than 200 lb., though it would still leave out quite a large number of people. | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 17:35 | comment | added | David Richerby | @jwenting The US Army uses parachutes that can cope with 360lbs (according to Wikipedia). Perhaps the 200lb limit for jump lessons is because they're tandem jumps at first? | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 14:19 | comment | added | kmort | @jwenting That's too bad. I'll have to lose some weight because I wanted to try it. | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 13:43 | comment | added | jwenting | @kmort any offer for "trial jumps" and even jump lessons I've seen mentions roughly that as an upper limit for people who can apply. So it's a good assumption that it's a typical safe limit for commercially available parachutes designed to carry human beings. | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 13:41 | comment | added | jwenting | @DanNeely yes, it's probably a limit that can be stretched, but there's a limit (though you can land several tons using just parachutes if you make the chutes large enough and maybe add some shock absorbers). Doesn't mean you want to have an untrained person to that treatment, especially one who is likely to get seriously injured as a result (overweight people tend not to be very athletic, so just putting a flyer with proper landing technique in the emergency egress instructions isn't going to help either). | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 13:20 | comment | added | Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight | @jwenting Seconding kmort's request. Paratroopers carry large amounts of supplies (food, weapons, ammo, etc) when they drop; I'd be shocked if most aren't well over the 200 lbs level. My assumption would be that the 200lbs figure is a safety limit for a standard size commercial chute. I also believe the paratroops fall faster and land harder than is normal for recreational jumping; which implies that (at the risk of more injuries from bad landings) there is a decent margin between commercial safety thresholds and going splat. | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 13:10 | comment | added | kmort | @jwenting Any sources on the 200lbs assertion? | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 11:01 | comment | added | David Richerby | @QuestionOverflow Lack of oxygen is temporary, sure. But the effects of lack of oxygen are much longer lasting! | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 10:31 | comment | added | Question Overflow | 1. A safety demonstration could be provided. 2. It is an emergency, the lack of oxygen is only temporary. 3. How costly is a parachute? 4. Life jackets also need to be maintained periodically. 5. At least people who have no disabilities can survive? 6. I agree with this point. 7. We are talking about an emergency scenario where it could be equally dangerous to stay in the doomed plane and do nothing. | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 10:11 | comment | added | jwenting | And don't forget that parachutes are pretty much useless to people of over about 200lbs, which is a pretty large part of the adult male western population. They'd either need to be banned from flying or have to sign waivers, which isn't good marketing, and that for no benefit whatsoever. | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 9:36 | history | answered | Karthick | CC BY-SA 3.0 |