aircraft question?

Question

why cant commercial airliners have parachutes fitted for passengers in a emergency


If its a weight problem fly with less passengers and lose a bit of profit. passanger safty should come before making a bit more money

wait untill the aircraft is over fields then jump. And passengers should put the chute on before take off. its not hard to work a chute is it !!! And as long as u exit the rear of the plane there would be no problems of being sucked into the engines. If the millitary can jump from a hercules then its possible to jump from a 737 747 etc

chrisbow after a crash landing it takes hardly any time to exit the plane. and you would have chance to jump if not all at least some I would think of myself and no one else

Answer 1

Several problems wrong with this idea:

1) USEFULNESS: 17% of accidents occur on take off, and 51% of accidents occur on landing. During both times, the parachutes are useless. Do you really want a safety system that can help LESS THAN 1/3 of the time? (32% to be exact)

(Source: http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm, scroll down to the yellow chart)

2) TRAINING TIME: You have ANY idea how long it takes to use a parachute solo? Military training for paratroopers takes THREE WEEKS FULL-TIME, even in wartime, when they really need the manpower. They don't even leave the ground in the first week

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/army/l/bljumpschool.htm

It is NOT something the civilians can learn in 5 minutes, much less in 30 seconds in a chaotic emergency situation.

3) FOOLPROOF FACTOR: Army don't use solo chutes. They use the "static line" method, where they "hook" onto a static line and as the jumper drops away from the plane the line pulls out his chute so he doesn't have to pull the release. This requires time to setup (stand up and hook up to the line) and MUST be in order. If any one falls down after they are hooked up, or try to jump the line, etc. the lines will tangle, then NOBODY gets out after the tangle. Then jumpmaster must cut the tangled lines and the jumpers must jump by themselves with the reserve chute.

4) TIME FACTOR: You really expect normal untrained people to wait calmly while all this is getting prepared? Even in a MILTIARY plane it takes TIME. Attaching people to the static line doesn't take long, but inspection to make sure everybody is hooked up right takes time, especially in a plane.

You can't compare a civilian airline to a Hercules. In Hercules the entire rear ramp drops down so the entire rear end is open, and up to 64 paratroopers can simply run toward the rear and jump out, and empty the plane in seconds. Civilian airlines have tiny doors (compared to military stuff) and filing people through one at a time will take several minutes, esp. when there are HUNDREDS of people, even if you use both sides. And what if they run into the tail itself? Ever think about that? C-130 is prop driven and actually SLOWS DOWN when doing drops. Airliners struggling to stay in the air can't slow down that much. And they ain't got no belly hatches for paradrops.

Not to mention if the plane can stay in the air that long for everybody to get prepared, wear their parachute, get hooked up, and jump out, it can find a place to set down somewhere.

5) HUMAN FACTOR: Military train the fear out of paratroopers. After all, the joke says "It takes training or craziness for people to jump out of perfectly good airplanes". And that takes TIME.

In a civilian plane, it will be chaos and pandemonium. people will be fighting to be first, lines will get tangled... Nobody will get out. And if you let them jump solo, they'll blindly run into each other, pull cord as soon as possible, and crash into each other on the way down, pull at the wrong time, etc. G-forces at chute deployment will rip off normal pieces of clothing (why do you think they wear jumpsuits?) and it's impractical to provide everybody with parachute AND jumpsuits.

Enough said.

Answer 2

In an emergency, passengers can't jump off the plane and open parachutes. It is very dangerous. Number one, most passengers are not trained. If 200 untrained people would jump off the plane and open their parachutes, their chutes can get tangled. Number two, they can't jump off the plane at FL350. They must be at a lower altitude and jump one by one out of the door at the back so nobody will get sucked by the engines. So what if the airplane is descending fast and about to hit the ground? The passengers must be at brace position not standing up in front of an open door. Number three, most accidents occur on landing and takeoff where the airplane is close to the ground. Passengers really don't have time to do that. This could be more dangerous than the crash itself!

Answer 3

Okay, We've established that aircraft are loud. Some are loud in the cockpit, which is why many headsets for light aircraft are sound insulated so that the pilot can hear what the person on the other end of the radio is saying to him. Jets, typically, are more sound attenuated, so that engine noise isn't a factor inside the cabin. Aircraft, on the roll, in either controlled or uncontrolled ground operation areas, are operated by highly trained personell, or highly trained instructors. On ramp areas, where pilots are most likely to taxi their airplanes into another airplane, at busier airports, it's common to have line personel guiding them. Last, but not least, if a collision is imminent, it's between a moving aircraft and a non-moving aircraft. It'd be like a ship sounding a horn at the lighthouse it was about to collide with. If the maritime anology doesn't get you, try driving towards a brick wall. Honk at it and see if it in any way exhibits behavior beyond sitting there inertly. Should you be willing to try either of the anologies I've provided, would you be so kind as to let me know who you're insured with? I'd like to make sure I don't have any stock in the company before you try.

Answer 4

You got a lot of good answers on this but there's also an economic factor. Airplanes are expensive machines. An airline has to keep them in the air as many hours a day as possible to make money. Can you imagine the dent in airplane utilization if everyone had to put a chute on before departure and then off again. Can you also imagine the total weight of all these parachutes? They would have to offload paying passengers just to carry the parachutes when they're having trouble making money as it is. And who's going to kick grandma out of the airplane in the dark.........c'mon, get serious. D.B. Cooper already tried this and hasn't been heard from since.

Answer 5

There are few things in this life that have to be absolutely perfect the first time you do them but a parachute jump is one of them.

I can just see an 80 year old grandmother of 12 trying to make a successful jump when she has absolutely no experience doing it.

If safety is to be absolute should we limit automobiles to 2.5 MPH? A collision at 60 can cause death and/or serious injury but a collision at 2.5 MPH would be nearly 100% survivable. There really is a matter of practicality involved here. The risk benefit analysis simply doesn't show any real benefit to your idea. And, it has been considered.

Now the real secret: Commercial flight is BY FAR the safest means of travel currently available to any human being. Statistically you are FAR more likely to be injured or killed on the 17 mile drive to the airport than on a 27,000 mile trip around the world. Again with the statistics, but you would have to board an airliner over a million times before you would be involved in an incident and that incident might not be fatal. While no safety record is perfect the commercial airline's is about as good as it can get.

An additional concern would be the cost. Cost in capacity, in weight, in pure waste of the resources that the airline requires to stay in business and provide the service many of find essential to our daily personal and professional lives.

Answer 6

Most airliners don't have a door in the rear that can accomodate passengers jumping with parashutes.
Most people have no idea how to opperate a parashute.
less people on board for a higher weight would make tickets waaay more expensive, so airlines would ju bankrupt.
How is a little kid going to accomplish this he?
If you have fear of heights, do you know how hard it's going to be to jump from a plane?
Think for a second how long it would take for hounderds of people who have never jumped out of a plane to exit in an emergency.
Parashutes are not confortable, and are really awkward and kind of heavy for some people.
What if you have a baby with you... how do you manage to jump with the baby he?
Would you fit your Grandfather/mother with a parashute and tell them to jump out in an emergency?

Think about that for a while.
By the way, Air travel is still by far the safest way to travel, without the need of parashutes.

Answer 7

Jumping out of an airplane is not like falling out of a boat with a life jacket, you have usually only two doors, so that means everyone has to patiently wait their turn and when they are faced with certain death staying in the airplane, you can be sure there will be a stampeded for the doors. those that do get out will be spread all over the country. What do they do with little old ladies or babies that are too small. Chutes are not used because they are grossly impractical and cause more problems than they could possibly cure

Answer 8

There are way too many problems with this...

Planes usually crash on takeoff... at that time, you cant get out the door. You are dead before you know there even is a problem.

At higher altitudes, you will die because there is no oxygen. And I hate to think what will happen when you open the door at 36k feet.

You are also going way too fast to jump out of a jet.

And when a jet is crashing, it is probably close to nose down, you cant get out of it.

All that being said... I used to be afraid to fly. The last few years, I have flown quite a lot (5 trips a year or so) and I am very comfortable with it.

It still amazes me that a 250,000+ pound bucket of rust gets off the ground... and is reliable as it is... but the fact of the matter is flying is very safe. The jet engine itself is very simple and reliable. But if there is a problem, and the plane is going down, parachutes wont help you.

I think around 300 people die each year (on average) in plane wrecks. How many people die each year in car accidents?

Answer 9

You dont seem to understand the logistics of this.
Any flight that the passengers have time to line up and parachute out shows that the crash would be survivable anyway. Any crash that kills everyone on board will most likely not allow time for 200 odd people to jump out of it will it?

Right so hang on, this unflyable, fatal aircrash, now has time to circle an airfield 1st then? and Im afraid you've proved my point- if it's such a crash that everyone can quickley get out, like you said, why would they need to jump? A crash that kills everyone usually happens in seconds, ie the JAL 747 that lost it's tail and crashed into japanese mountain range, killing all but 5. with the G forces and instability of a high fatality crash, the passengers wont be able to get out anyway! Especially all going to the rear, as you suggest? and if they, could, then the crash would probably be survivable anyway. Do you get me?

And you want everyone to wear a parachute the whole flight then? ok.

Do you want every car to have an ejection seat as well?

Answer 10

I've thought about this for years and have come to the conclusion that if was deemed impractical long ago. Can you imagine an emergency situation with a couple of hundred people struggling in coach to put on parachutes and the crush of people to the door walking over and shoving the ones too frightened to jump. It just wouldn't work.