why do commercial airlines keep lifejackets and not parachutes?

Answer 1

I think the simple answer is that lifejackets are required by Federal Regulation for air transportation over water. Parachutes are not required by FAR except in acrobatic aircraft.

Below is an excerpt of what is required for over-water operations.......


§ 121.339 Emergency equipment for extended over-water operations.
(a) Except where the Administrator, by amending the operations specifications of the certificate holder, requires the carriage of all or any specific items of the equipment listed below for any overwater operation, or upon application of the certificate holder, the Administrator allows deviation for a particular extended overwater operation, no person may operate an airplane in extended overwater operations without having on the airplane the following equipment:

(1) A life preserver equipped with an approved survivor locator light, for each occupant of the airplane.

(2) Enough life rafts (each equipped with an approved survivor locator light) of a rated capacity and buoyancy to accommodate the occupants of the airplane. Unless excess rafts of enough capacity are provided, the buoyancy and seating capacity beyond the rated capacity of the rafts must accommodate all occupants of the airplane in the event of a loss of one raft of the largest rated capacity.

(3) At least one pyrotechnic signaling device for each life raft.

(4) An approved survival type emergency locator transmitter. Batteries used in this transmitter must be replaced (or recharged, if the battery is rechargeable) when the transmitter has been in use for more than 1 cumulative hour, or when 50 percent of their useful life (or for rechargeable batteries, 50 percent of their useful life of charge) has expired, as established by the transmitter manufacturer under its approval. The new expiration date for replacing (or recharging) the battery must be legibly marked on the outside of the transmitter. The battery useful life (or useful life of charge) requirements of this paragraph do not apply to batteries (such as water-activated batteries) that are essentially unaffected during probable storage intervals.

(b) The required life rafts, life preservers, and survival type emergency locator transmitter must be easily accessible in the event of a ditching without appreciable time for preparatory procedures. This equipment must be installed in conspicuously marked, approved locations.

(c) A survival kit, appropriately equipped for the route to be flown, must be attached to each required life raft.


§ 121.340 Emergency flotation means.
(a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, no person may operate an airplane in any overwater operation unless it is equipped with life preservers in accordance with §121.339(a)(1) or with an approved flotation means for each occupant. This means must be within easy reach of each seated occupant and must be readily removable from the airplane.

(b) Upon application by the air carrier or commercial operator, the Administrator may approve the operation of an airplane over water without the life preservers or flotation means required by paragraph (a) of this section, if the air carrier or commercial operator shows that the water over which the airplane is to be operated is not of such size and depth that life preservers or flotation means would be required for the survival of its occupants in the event the flight terminates in that water.


I'm sure that if the FAA did not explicitly require them for over-water ops, you would not see them there either. Each jacket must be tested and certified every year. It is quite costly.

Answer 2

This is becoming a common question, pretty much a repost of same answer I have already given:

The provison of lifejackets is cheap and offers some protection assuming the unlikely event of getting a large jet down onto water in any semblence of order).

Reasons why not parachutes (in the order they fell out my brain, not importance):

1. It takes room and time for experienced people to put parachutes on - even if folks were given vintage chest mounted parachutes it isn't a practical proposition in an emergency (what about kids, the ederly and infirm?). Also - are we expecting freefall or will there be time to hook up a static line?;
2. Even dropping folk out of two sides of the plane, to get a significant amount of people out in a stick type drop (like WWII parachutists) would take way too long even if you don't allow for a huge number of folks freezing/freaking in the queue;
3. Storing that amount of even chest mounted parachutes is problematic (although not impossible);
4. Assuming you had emergency opening doors (rather than the normal ones) the depresurisation (lack of oxygen plus cold) at normal altitude would kill most folks before you could get them out. If you wait until (say) 17,000 ft you are going to have very little time in an emergency to do anything;
5. Depresurising the aircraft will make any aircraft problem worse;
6. perversely available parachutes might make hijack/terrorims more likely ... Google "DB Cooper" for more information;
7. The speed of exit would make the ride 'interesting for even experienced jumpers' - imagine a giant grabbing your back and throwing you like a toy (this is from personal experience);
8. I could mention the amount of injures/deaths due to malfunctions, bad landing, collisions (with each other ... you are very very unlikely to hit the aircraft or engines) especially if a night jump or water landing but I suppose if the failure is catastrophic enough it is better than nothing.

If I think of more I will add them.


Bottom line, although it is possible to jump from a commercial jet, even at 40,000 feet (if you have supplimentary oxygen; cold weather clothing and freefall gear [unless you want to open immediately and land sometime the following day]) staying with the plane is going to be a much better bet, whatever the situation.

IMHO the provision of lifejackets is bordering on a long-shot as the chance of landing a large aircraft on water without catastrophic destruction is pretty low although it has saved lives in the past.

As a side-note, parachutes exist for entire aircraft (mostly microlights and small aircraft but their are test versions for big jets) - I suspect the sticking point is reliability combined with economics (such parachutes take space and weight quite a bit which equals money in air transport).

Blue skies =8-)

Answer 3

You need some training before you can safely use a parachute, and most passengers do not have this training before-hand. Plus the plane is moving way too fast and is too high up for even an experienced parachutist to safely make it to the ground. What it comes down to is, the plane must be moving very slowly at low altitude for parachuting to be an option, and if it is that low and that slow for long enough to empty the plane (which will take a long time, especially with a bunch of inexperienced folks on board), then the pilot has sufficient control to try for an emergency landing.

Answer 4

1. At altitude, you'd freeze to death instantly upon exiting the aircraft. The temp is typically -40F to -70F. At normal cruise of 500 - 650 MPH, every bone in your body would be shattered when you hit the slipstream; most people's arms and legs would be ripped off by flailing injuries. Think of all of the crushed and frozen arms, legs, and bodies with unopened parachutes attached hitting the ground at terminal velocity -- about 125 MPH.

2. Most accidents happen during the transition period of takeoff and landing. You're too close to the ground for parachutes to be effective and there isn't enough time to get everyone out anyway.

3. There are no doors on an airliner that can be opened in flight, so there is no way to get out anyway.

4. Parachutes need to be donned before getting on the airplane. You'd need to show up 5 hours before departure to get everyone suited up. Connections would be 5 - 7 hours.

5. The bulk of the parachutes would require the airlines to remove half of the seats to make room. Add the cost of parachute riggers and staff to help passengers put them on, and airfares would quadruple at least.

6. The typical airline passenger isn't trained in the use of a parachute; it would be akin to handing a 5-year-old a loaded AK-47.

Answer 5

There isn't much purpose in having lifevests on a commercial airliner. In reality, if you ditch at sea, chances are your dead, either by crash, hypothermia, or sharks.

For the subject of parachutes, I doubt too many would survive a first time jump at airliner speed and altitude.

Answer 6

how many of the screaming people of the 200-300 do you think would be able to put on a parachuet , jump out the door at 400-600 mile per hour in a decompressing aircraft thatz hurtling towards the ground. and survive...hell...it take 20 min just to get off a freaking aircarft on the tarmac

Answer 7

1) it would be impossible to instruct a planeful of panicked passenger in how to wear and use the equipment.

2) what do you do about children

3) hundreds parachutes are too bulky on a passenger plane

4) difficult, if not impossible to open the doors in flight

Answer 8

Do you really think if an airliner is out of control, you could stand up, walk to an exit, open it, and jump out while it is going 200-500 miles per hour?

Answer 9

at the speed that commercial planes travel and the height, if there is a reason to bail, odds are the pilots have lost control of the plane and therefore the plane would be either too fast to jump out of safely, or too low to jump out safely, there are few occassions in which passengers would be able to jump out of the plane safely, let alone the fact that most people don't know how to proprely jump out of a plane

Answer 10

because "bailing out" is not part of their emergency plan, it would take too long, and passengers are not trained to use parachutes correctly, more would DIE from the jump, than survive. , its usually easier to crash land in water when possible, if you are crashing over land, there is no time to get everyone to bail out, it could take 2 hours for 300 passengers.

Answer 11

Life jackets are only stowed aboard overwater flights.
What good would a parachute do for you, if you'll only drown within minutes?