Why are there flotation devices in the seats of planes instead of parachutes?

Answer 1

Because it is not feasible to jump from a commercial plane in flight. It is not designed to allow that. The flotation device is there on the miniscule chance that you survive a forced landing in water.

Answer 2

Chances of survival with a water landing is far greater than having the average passenger disembark the plane having no static-line delivery. Even should they be able to open the canopy in time, they'd have to escape the draft of the downward aircraft as it could easily deflate any opened chutes.

Finally, there is no such thing as a Shirley Temple tip-toe parachute landing. You land like a ton of bricks and without proper training, can easily break ankles and legs in the process. The parachute that might be issued would be one of plain WWII vintage, the T-7 or the T-10 that cannot be steered except by extreme pull down of the risers.

Even if a foil such as seen used by the Golden Knights were issued, an untrained jumper could easily meet the ground at 60 to 100 knots an hour.

Surviving such events would be minimal.

Answer 3

Average person has never seen a parachute face to face, let alone know how to operate one. There's no time to explain it in an emergency, or before you takeoff.

The other issue being that in order to leap from the plane they would have to open the doors/hatches. At those elevations, people would get sucked out at such a force they would be disoriented or unconscious, rendering the parachutes useless. It might also cause the plane to go into a severe flatspin, because of the pressure change.

The floatation devices are a last resort in the event they make a crash ocean landing, and there are survivors.

Answer 4

Airliners are not equipped to allow passenegers to jump out since they are pressurized. It is not possible to jump out a pressurized jet and if were to decompress it would likely break apart. Even if it depressurized slowly, jumping out of a jet airliner would take you from an apparent zero airspeed to seceral hundred miles per hour in an instant, and that would kill most people, as well as rendering parachites useless.

The flotation devices are provided since 75% of the Earth's surface is water and a plane that was forced down may actually be able to land on water enough to allow some survivors.

To be cynical, they do help make the crash site easier to identify for the search and recovery personel.

Answer 5

Cause most people will die if they tried to sky dive without any sort of training so as to not waste space they dont put parachute, my training took 6 hours. Floatation devices cause well there is a lot of water on earth, a plane is more likely to land on water than land if you take out all thoughts of rationality

Answer 6

techincally, the seats are the floatation devices, so unless a cusion is also a parachute (which it isn't) they won't have parachutes. I think they keep them in the very back of the plane.

Answer 7

parachutes are more costly & complicated. besides planes
cross more water than land. parachutes take up too much rm.
& need wind. if a plane crashes into something how will you
jump out of it?

Answer 8

I guess to make people feel safer if there is ever a water landing, not that anyone would survive anyway, since the plane is going too fast to land on water.

Answer 9

Breaking the pressureized cabin's intrgrity would suck everybody out. Besides everyone can float but everyone can't parachute.

Answer 10

cuz they would never let u jump out- its mostly so passengers will feel safer-- like the safety stance of sitting with your head in your lap-- thats only so if the plane crashes you wont see the death and destruction and so you will be killed instantly instead of suffering (hoping u break ur neck)