Except for the the stewardess who was swept out of the plane these people all survived. The incident was "only" at 24K but it was about as rapid as it possibly could be.
Posted on 03/12/2014 4:17:01 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Have they checked it with Boeing—certainly they would be able to identify if the raft even remotely resembles what they carry on the 777.
I would think rendered unconscious or broken neck, pretty quickly?
Not on my bucket list thank you
The officials sound like a bunch of incompetents. The fisherman could keep the raft afloat, but they couldn’t?
What I don’t get is why a life raft from a plane would sink. I don’t know what they are made of, but would it actually sink so rapidly that they couldn’t even get a boat hook on it?
Maybe this story is just a load of hooey.
I don’t think it’s exactly hooey, in the strictest sense of the word. But I don’t think the “raft” is connected to this plane. More compelling evidence has it on the other side of Malaysia.
I remember a 25 man life raft from another ship went over the side. It only partially deployed so it was barely floating, mostly underwater. We had no easy way to lift it from the sea with that much water weight in it so we machine gunned it to sink it. It would have eventually sunk on its own, just slower.
Hey thanks.
Eh, no.
I was trying to give you moral support. Last time I do that, ya slanderer
An aircraft raft would have ID stamped on it and all kinds of serial numbers and other ID marks.
The metal and composite aircraft shreds into a million pieces that become meat grinders. It is a very, very messy event and in addition the immediate exposure to 550+ mph winds tends to take people apart. Any that survived that I am sure were unconscious for their ride down.
Not true. The “time to get to the oxygen masks” scenario happens when there is a gradual decompression (due to a door seal blow-out or whatever), not an instantaneous loss of all cabin pressure. Even at Mt. Everest elevation you would lose consciousness if subjected to that instantaneously. The gradual vs. sudden nature of the loss is very important. Many people have climbed Everest without supplemental oxygen but not without long, long acclimatization.
Okay, thanks for the perspective.
And thank you for your service.
I guess utter incompetence is our best hope now
Except for the the stewardess who was swept out of the plane these people all survived. The incident was "only" at 24K but it was about as rapid as it possibly could be.
I once climbed my unpressurized private plane somewhat above 12.5k (legal at the time) but not by much (it would barely climb further). I set a firm limit of 10 minutes and kept saying that to myself. After a few minutes I recognized that giddy feeling and also nausea and came back down. Bear in mind I had been "acclimating" for an hour (not a second).
At 12,500 ft there is 64% of the oxygen available at sea level.
At 29,000 there is 33.
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