Why do commercial airlines dont have any parachutes?

Answer 1

I always wondered that myself, while in the USAF i felt safe in the wild blue with my chute on

Answer 2

Take it from someone that jumps out of planes for fun. There is not enough room to put on a parachute in a commercial plane. Everyone would have to wear the rigs before getting on the aircraft. Even if everyone had a parachute there is no safe way to exit the aircraft. You would need special equipment and training to survive the 560 + mph winds and 30,000 foot plus altitudes. Without extra oxygen and protective gear you would die in that environment. The fastest skydiving jumps are at 150 knots, not 500 + knots and are made from 18,000 feet MSL or lower. Just getting out of the airplane could kill you as you'd be slammed into the door on exit. The next issue would be landing a parachute. Most likely this case would use rounds and you'd just have to do a parachute landing fall. That is easy enough to learn. The steering of the canopy would require training. I'd say that about 25% of the people on any flight are not healthy enough to survive a normal skydive. The very young, old, and anyone not in good health would have no chance at surviving the exit, parachute flight or landing.

if every seat was an ejection seat then maybe you could save a handful of lives, but the extra training and complete redesign of the aircrafts would not be cost effective.

In the big picture. commercial airline flights are very safe and not something to worry about.

Answer 3

For 99% of the time you are too high and/or too fast to bail out anyway. Only in the last few minutes before landing and the first couple after taking off. There's virtually no chance of making it in to an engine though, regardless of the fact that you are going fast through the air you also drop like a rock when you jump. Peterborough Parachute Center used a Britain-Norman Islander and you jumped out just ahead of the main (fixed) gear, but by the time it caught up you were ten feet down and leaving fast.

Now if we could just give everyone a bone dome and a Martin Baker Zero-Zero Mk16 we'd have a reasonable chance of them escaping.

You can't give them to the crew, the passangers wouldn't like the idea that they could be abandoned when the going got tough.

Answer 4

1. Airline accidents are so very rare that there is no way to justify the cost of heroic lifesaving measures.

2. The correct use of a parachute is difficult to learn, and requires that a person be young and in excellent physical condition, which applies to a very small minority of airline passengers.

3. The human body is very fragile, while airliners are very rugged. The chances of a passenger being hurt or killed in an incident or accident are much less inside the airplane than they would be hanging outside on a parachute.

4. That's a good start. There are other reasons.

Answer 5

First off, most of the jets that they fly are huge and very fast. If an emergency occurred you wouldn't be able to jump out the plane without hitting it or being sucked into the engine. Second, no one wants to see parachutes while they are trying to get someplace safe. The airline has to make you feel comfortable. And finally, most people would have no idea how to use a parachute let alone how to land on the ground with one. But I think it would be fun to watch!!!

Answer 6

In the days of prop-driven planes, using a parachute (in anywhere but Hollywood) brought on a complete set of new problems.

With today's turbine-engined planes, particularly those with the engines mounted on the rear of the fuselage, there is one more nasty problem: anyone leaving ahead of the intakes won't live long enough to deploy the 'chute -- those vacuum cleaners will suck them right in! (And, considering the pilots already had a problem or two, the loss of an engine full of humans wouldn't help...)

Seriously, as birds became more reliable, the need for an alternate soft landing device was reduced to the improbable.

Answer 7

Take it from all people who has jumped out airplanes a pair hundred events, there isn't any in simple terms good technique to go out a commercial airliner, parachute or no longer. brush aside with regard to the great fee, i might say an undemanding pilot rig for each passenger might fee the airline some component in the area of $one hundred,000 for a time-honored airplane in simple terms like the Airbus 318. This fee might desire to be which contain a huge low fee for a huge order as solid. there is now no longer adequate space in the airplane to positioned on a parachute. there isn't any option to coach human beings to apply the parachute. even nonetheless you likely did have a parachute, there isn't any option to go out the airplane without being killed. the two you may die for the rationalization that of the shortcoming of oxygen at altitude or the stress of exiting a airplane flighting at between 450mph and 580mph might kill you. A skydiving airplane is doing although from eighty to one hundred mph on leap run. The quickest leap airplane is a exceptionally changed jet that does 150mph on leap run. do no longer forget approximately each and all the persons who fly that are actual no longer able to place on or use a parachute (the very youthful, very historic, wheel chairs...). it is an challenge in futility to outfit enterprise airliners with parachutes. yet complete, air adventure may be very solid. i admire leaping my parachute, yet i do no longer even assume approximately it while getting right into a commercial airliner.

Answer 8

Commercial aircraft are flying too high and too fast even for an expert to jump out of. When special forces soldiers jump from that altitude, the plane is going relatively slow and they jump wearing pressure suits. If you were to exit an aircraft at 35000 feet without a pressure suit, you would die or at least suffer extensive injuries due to the low air pressure. Also, the forces exerted on your body when leaving the aircraft from the wind alone (500+ mph) are enough to break bones and sever major blood vessels.

To sum it all up, it's unpractical. It would be a complete waste of money to keep even one parachute on board.

Answer 9

because y would an airliner need 1?
The chances of a mid-air crash is 1/80,000,000,000 and even in that tragic event, a parachute won't be any use.
If there was engine failure, airliners go through rigoious tests to make sure it can depend on another...
then the pilot looks for a suitable near airport 2 land during its 'may day'

Answer 10

Because jet aircraft fly at altitude and a speed which makes it impractical to parachute, in particular for an untrained person. Even if it were not impractical, and if everyone on-board were to be trained, unfortunately most aircraft accidents that happen in the air do not allow for enough time to evacuate the plane.

By the way those "flotation devices" under the seat are absolutely useless too, an event where a large commercial airliner could actually land on water in one piece AND stay afloat are pure Hollywood fiction.

Answer 11

It is a good question I always thought of that. Well I think it would be alot of money and a waste of money. Everyone on the plane would need to be taught how to parachute...what about little kids or eldery people?

Plus when they are having problems they done know if the plane will go down and you have a better chance of letting the pilots do there job. Plus if they open the plane doors at a high in the air you would never make it to the ground safely or something.

But there are many many reasons why they don't have them.