24
votes
Has an aircraft ever crashed due to it exceeding its ceiling altitude?
Airplanes are dynamically pressurized, not sealed. If the plane could be lifted too high, it would not explode (or otherwise fail catastrophically), but the interior cabin pressure would drop. ...
- 5,901
11
votes
Accepted
Has an aircraft ever crashed due to it exceeding its ceiling altitude?
A plane doesn't simply "explode" on high altitude because the hull and the pressurization systems are built with safety measures.
However, there are safety problems with flying beyond the ...
- 226
7
votes
Has an aircraft ever crashed due to it exceeding its ceiling altitude?
One of the most well-known failures in aviation history, that of a number of De-Havilland Comets, was because of the pressurized cabin combined with metal fatigue. So we could say that for its design ...
- 171
6
votes
Has an aircraft ever crashed due to it exceeding its ceiling altitude?
There was a twin jet commuter plane that crashed because the pilots flew it up to 41,000 feet while mismanaging their autopilot, their AoA, and their engine power settings. This led to a both-engines ...
- 22.1k
5
votes
Are there any commercial flights that require passengers to use supplemental oxygen?
It's common for skydiving flights to high altitudes. For scheduled passenger flights it's wildly uneconomical.
It's much cheaper, more comfortable to passengers, and safer to fly a pressurized ...
- 17.4k
4
votes
Has an aircraft ever crashed due to it exceeding its ceiling altitude?
The Comet was imfamous for illustrating the risks of metal fatigue, and every plane since had been a lot safer in that regard.
However there have still been more recent cases of abrupt structural ...
- 141
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