Why are there floatation devices under plane seats instead of parachutes?

Answer 1

because if you jumped out of the door you'r probably get clotheslined by one of the wings, or pulled into once of the whirly-whirly fan thingies. -F*ck yea, vocabulary.

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.

For more information about traveling with a parachute you can check out www.uspa.org and there is a link to the TSA rules about traveling with rigs.

In the big picture. commercial airline flights are very safe and not something to worry about. I travel for a living. Taking two or more flights a week across the US. I hate landing in planes because I’d rather be jumping out and landing my parachute, but it is impossible to do that safely from a commercial aircraft; never mind the less than legal part of it.

As for flotation devises, I don’t know about you, but when I get into water all I do is prolong my drowning. I’m very glad there is something there to help me float if needed. The parachutes are pointless, the flotation device, might of might not be useful, but I like having the piece of mind. Perhaps having a parachute on the plane would give piece of mind, even if it couldn’t be used.

Answer 3

As a pilot, I will tell you why airliners dont have parachutes.
We dont need them.
Besides catastrophic structural failure, there is no reason to need a quick exit. Only two airliners in history have suffered from structural failure, and that was over 40 years ago.
Almost all fatal crashes are called controlled flight into terrain, which means that there was no warning, the aircraft just smashed right into a mountain and that was it. Besides that, there are very few fatal crashes. There was even a time when a 737 was landed on a levee in New Orleans in the middle of a thunderstorm because its engines flamed out, look it up.
A indirect reason there arent parachutes o aircraft is the weight. Lugging around hundreds of parachutes all the time just in case there might be a chance that the passengers might get out doesnt make sense financially because it would increase fuel consumption. Even if it increased fuel consumption only 5% it would cost the airline over $60 million over the life of the aircraft, seeing that the aircraft will burn over $1 billion in fuel over its life. Just think, a 757 uses 5000 gallons of jet fuel an hour and it will last over 100,000 hours.

Answer 4

Probably because more people know how to use a floatation device than parachutes. Consider this - if a plane crashes into the water, the floatation devices will help even the injured keep their heads above the water. However, people using parachutes have to keep their minds on what they're doing. People who are badly injured wouldn't be able to control the lines or keep their minds off their pain.

Answer 5

Because if a plain was going to crash it would already be hurtling towards the ground
if you jumped with a parachute there wouldnt be enough time for it to open and there is chance u could be pulled towards the enigine.
The plane is most likely to be over water.
with the flotation device if the plane has already hit the sea
you can use them to reach the surface quicker
or you could jump from the plane and the water would help break the fall (not from great heights) and the floatation device keep you above water
and you can survive at sea longer
whilst waiting for rescue

Answer 6

Have you ever seen what happens if you let air into a plane that's airborn? When you try to open the door to jump out you and everyone else will be violently sucked out of the plane. The same will happen if the walls or windows were to open for any reason. If you get sucked out of the plane in the air you will probably not have enough clearance to open the chute away from the plane. You'll notice skydivers need to be clear from the aircraft before opening the chute. You need a lot of room all around you for a parachute to open correctly...and things can't be flying around or the chute will get snagged or ripped. Also, some heights are just too high to deploy a chute...and there's just not enough air at those altitudes for you to breathe anyways.

In short, if you actually survive a plane crash you'll be glad you had a floatation device (and not a parachute) if you happen to land in the water.

Answer 7

well parachutes would be useless in 99% of crashes in the big jets because not only are there about 100 people in a plane with hardly any room to move around, you also have to think that the plane is probably tossing and turning, so trying to get a parachute out would be very difficult if not impossible.plus most of the time there is not enough time.uhhmm.. hope this answers your question.

Answer 8

Four reasons
1. Majority of this earth is covered by water.
2. By the time you find out something is wrong it would be too late to use a parachute.
3.It is alot safer then jumping out of a plane.
4.Due to the high altitudes that planes fly, you would not be able to use a parachute.

Answer 9

Because floatation devices float in water better than a parachute. If a plane was going down, passengers wouldn't be able to jump out the door.

Answer 10

It take three weeks of training to be an Army Paratrooper, and that is static line jumps. Very seldom did we do "on-board rigging". That is where the troops put the chutes on while in flight and I can tell you, that is a big pain in the butt. Besides, commercial aircraft are not built for jumping with a pressurized cabin and the location of the engines and horizontal stabilizers and all. You would probably have more people hurt and killed in the panic and what are you going to do with the little kids and elderly? The plane may crash while everyone is standing up unbuckled trying to get a chute on. No, I'll take my chances buckled in to a seat and have faith the pilots can set us down somewhere like water, and float around until we are found!

Answer 11

Parachutes require a certain level of training to use with much success. Conversely, almost anyone can use a float. Also, exiting the aircraft in flight is problematic-you may get sucked into a jet engine, or smack into the tail-not all aircraft are made for skydiving. Once a plane is in the water, chances are it's broken up enough to compel the use of floatation devices.