Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

DEBUNKED: 10 Airplane Myths That People Still Believe
Business Insider ^ | 09/24/13 | Alex Davies

Posted on 09/26/2013 12:03:19 PM PDT by oxcart

Flying can be a mysterious experience: Planes are incredibly complicated, even scary machines, and pilots and flight attendants don't tell you too much about what's going on.

So it makes sense that people believe all sorts of interesting "facts" about air travel.

The problem is, a lot of them aren't true.

From "you get drunk faster in the air" to "the air in planes is riddled with germs," here are 10 airplane myths that needed to be debunked.

1. Opening a plane door while in flight is a real safety risk.

It isn't. When the plane is at cruising altitude, it's pressurized. That pressure means that getting a door open would require superhuman strength.

To quote Patrick Smith, an airline pilot, blogger, and author of Cockpit Confidential: "You cannot – repeat, cannot – open the doors or emergency hatches of an airplane in flight. You can’t open them for the simple reason that cabin pressure won’t allow it."

So don't worry about the occasional passenger going nuts and everyone flying out of the plane as the result of an opened door, it isn't going to happen. Which leads us to the next myth...

2. A small hole in a plane will lead to everyone being sucked right out.

Patrick Smith notes that while bombs and large-scale structural failures can cause disastrous, rapid decompression, a small hole in a plane's fuselage is a different matter.

After a foot-long breach in an Alaska Airlines MD-80 plane led to an emergency descent in 2006, Smith wrote in his Salon column: "The breach was a small one, and once the cabin pressure had escaped, it could be reasonably assumed that the plane was going to stay in one solid piece and fly just fine. Which it did."

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Travel
KEYWORDS: aerospace; airline; aviation; jet; myth; plane
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 201-207 next last
To: Izzy Dunne

You do not understand the operation of doors on airplanes. When you do learn how they work, you will stop accusing one of making a “sorry, sorry explanation”! Just ask yourself a simple question...would the manufacturer make a product/door that could be opened in flight? There is only answer.


41 posted on 09/26/2013 12:25:58 PM PDT by BatGuano (You don't think I'd go into combat with loose change in my pocket, do ya?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: corkoman

When I was using my drink coupon at 9am, telling myself it was 5:30 somewhere, I refrained from asking the trolly dolly if pilots were the biggest consumers of alcohol as pax. I didn’t want to give myself away or scare my seatmates. Please don’t tell CPS I used to give my kids benadryl before flying...oh, nvm, they’re all adults now. I just always pray that people won’t stop believing, en masse, that metal tubes can fly. Always tests my faith as a Christian. I told my pilot husband, “I don’t fly well.” He said, “Really? (LOL)” Thank your captain. Just sayin’.


42 posted on 09/26/2013 12:25:59 PM PDT by pops88 (Geek chick standing with Breitbart for truth)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: drbuzzard
I can put away more beer when the stews are able to move about the cabin at cruising altitude and can bring me more beers. ;)

/johnny

43 posted on 09/26/2013 12:26:01 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: qam1
11. Flying is safer than driving

It is safer than driving. You could be driving stone cold sober in good weather in the safest car with seat belts and air bags and still be struck and killed by a piece falling off an airplane.

44 posted on 09/26/2013 12:27:16 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.' Matthew 5:37)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: kidd
The article is correct.

Then why does D.B. Cooper's bail-out keep coming to mind?

45 posted on 09/26/2013 12:27:18 PM PDT by Bernard Marx
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Revolting cat!

13. the seats really are not smaller than they used to be...


46 posted on 09/26/2013 12:27:58 PM PDT by cherry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: oxcart

To quote Patrick Smith, an airline pilot, blogger, and author of Cockpit Confidential: “You cannot – repeat, cannot – open the doors or emergency hatches of an airplane in flight. You can’t open them for the simple reason that cabin pressure won’t allow it.”

uh...D.B. Cooper!?!?!?!


47 posted on 09/26/2013 12:28:15 PM PDT by G Larry (Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Psalms 109:8)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JRandomFreeper

Stews bring you drinks faster? After a few, mine simply point me in the direction of the cart and tell me to help myself.


48 posted on 09/26/2013 12:28:50 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: 04-Bravo; 1FASTGLOCK45; 1stFreedom; 2ndDivisionVet; 2sheds; 60Gunner; 6AL-4V; A.A. Cunningham; ...
Aviation and Aerospace ping

Click here: Highlights in the History of Aviation and Aerospace - The Past, The Present, and The Future

Please ping me to aviation and aerospace articles. Thank you.

If you want added to or removed from this ping list, please contact EveningStar or Paleo Conservative.

49 posted on 09/26/2013 12:29:21 PM PDT by EveningStar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: oxcart

14. If an engine goes out, a witch on the wing of the plane caused it.

15. Action heroes can get into fist fights on the wing of the plane while it is flying.


50 posted on 09/26/2013 12:29:38 PM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FreedomNotSafety

There is an 8 pounds per square inch difference between the inside and outside of the cabin.

If the door is 3 feet by 6 feet, it has an area of 2592 square inches.

Thats a force of 20,736 pounds, or over 10 tons, on the door.

The door handle would break before you’d be able to open the door.


51 posted on 09/26/2013 12:30:14 PM PDT by kidd (No blood for ego)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: oxcart

16) US Senators commonly travel coach.


52 posted on 09/26/2013 12:30:21 PM PDT by Zathras
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: qam1

More myths:

The person who sat in the seat before you wasn’t wearing depends.

A baby who sat in the seat before you didn’t crap in his diaper.

All the air inside the tube is germ free.

The pillows don’t smell like farts. (But Stewie Griffin said his did.)


53 posted on 09/26/2013 12:30:23 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (".....Barrack, and the horse Mohammed rode in on.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: BatGuano
When you do learn how they work, you will stop accusing one of making a “sorry, sorry explanation”!

I do know how they work, and I still say that it's a sorry explanation.

When one claims to "debunk" something, it's not enough to say "it's pressurized".

54 posted on 09/26/2013 12:31:14 PM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: luvbach1

You probably caught the cold in the crowded airport and if the air is blowing into your face, you are smelling your own breath. :)


55 posted on 09/26/2013 12:33:21 PM PDT by Ditter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Izzy Dunne

The doors open IN.


56 posted on 09/26/2013 12:33:29 PM PDT by raybbr (I weep over my sons' future in this Godforsaken country.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
Center fuel tanks when empty can explode due to an electrical short.

But, but . . . it was really, really, really hot that day.

57 posted on 09/26/2013 12:33:35 PM PDT by Hardastarboard (Buck Off, Bronco Bama)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: G Larry; Bernard Marx
uh...D.B. Cooper!?!?!?!

From Wikipedia (yes, I know the warnings):

During refueling Cooper outlined his flight plan to the cockpit crew: a southeast course toward Mexico City at the minimum airspeed possible without stalling the aircraft (approximately 100 knots (190 km/h; 120 mph)) at a maximum 10,000 foot (3,000 m) altitude. He further specified that the landing gear remain deployed in the takeoff/landing position, the wing flaps be lowered 15 degrees, and the cabin remain unpressurized.

If the pressure is the same inside as outside it is easy to open the door.

58 posted on 09/26/2013 12:33:43 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (Everyone get online for Obamacare on 10/1. Overload the system and crash it hard!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

They either open by pulling them inside first, and then out or they are mounted on tracks that pull the door in and then upward into the fuselage ceiling. The pressurized cabin always prevent the doors from opening when the aircraft is pressurized. There are other safety preventions on the doors which prevent opening, after the doors are closed, prior to take-off.


59 posted on 09/26/2013 12:34:09 PM PDT by JLAGRAYFOX ( My only objective is to defeat and destroy Obama & his Democrat Party, politically!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: G Larry

DB Cooper exitied a 727 that had rear stairs, which he exited from.

Not the same mechanism as a modern plane, as they dropped down, not in and then out.


60 posted on 09/26/2013 12:34:12 PM PDT by Gamecock (Many Atheists take the stand: "There is no God AND I hate Him.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 201-207 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson