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 ...
Leaks due to seal issues. Not practice. Not done intentionally in flight.
horse crap.
Anyone believe or trust the F.B.I. is a damned fool.
No disagreement but 1. The myth wasn’t about whether or not the door could be opened. 2. The myth was what happened if the door was opened.
The article covers 1 as a way of refuting 2. The article did directly refute 2. Opening the door is risky but there is no risk of the door being opened.
This is why it is fun to scare people by stating very truthfully what would happen IF the door was opened.
It is a classic liberal scare tactic. Scare people with the consequences of something that is unlikely to ever happen. The proclaim we must take action.
None of that has anything to do with my point, which was, if you are trying to debunk something, you would explain it in the article.
Except, that's not what you said. If you have forgotten, here it is:
The pressure is on the INSIDE, pushing OUT. It’s not a far stretch to think that the pressure would HELP you open the door, not hinder you
You quite obviously did not (at that time) know how the doors work. Jeezus, just admit you were wrong. At a minimum, quick barking and go away.
The changing air pressure is usually what causes infants and toddler to scream. They don't know how to equalize their ears, and it hurts. I've had it happen as an adult (allergies or slight cold), and it hurts -- a lot.
Increasing the cabin altitude would actually make it worse, not better.
Decades ago, old design, re-engineered solution.
Excellent facts.
so it IS a “far stretch” for a person to assume pressure pushes things out? oooooooo-kay
D.B. used a ramp on the back that opened hydraulically.
“...you are over the age of 25 then your chances of dying in car accident go way, way, way, way down.”
I just hope I die peacefully in my sleep like my grandpa and not like the passengers in his car.
Myth: Pilots are always concerned about running out of fuel.
Answer: Nope. Even in the event of catastrophic fuel loss, the airplane will always have just enough fuel on board to arrive at the crash site.
:)
“11. Flying is safer than driving”
Until their planes dump their human waste and carpet bomb your car from the air.
And getting uglier and meaner each day.
I have a theory on that: They became a stewardess when they were young, pretty and perky and pilots chased them. . .and they took advantage of that.
Then, decades later, either they married the pilot and he eventually fell for another young pretty and perky stewardess, thereby turning the stewardess into an old bitter hag, or the stewardess never snagged a pilot and is bitter and resentful for that. . .regardless, in both cases, they are still on their feet decades after they thought they would be living the good life playing tennis at the club.
Just my theory. . .
I said that “it’s not that far of a stretch” .
I should have said that “it’s not that far of a stretch for the average Joe, who doesn’t know the details, and that’s why it seems believeable”.
Other than that, where was I wrong?
Actually we are supposed to do a through flight plan prior to flight. Allowing for “extra” fuel in case of a wind shift or trouble at intended destination.
Sometimes pooh happens and you may run out of fuel and we practice emergency no power landings for just this reason.
Altitude is you friend.
“I refrained from asking the trolly dolly if pilots were the biggest consumers of alcohol as pax.”
I will confirm that for you...it’s fun to drink and fly...it’s also fun to critique the cockpit...”Are ya gonna log that as 2 landings?”. Or tell ‘em they did a great job.
Until the pilots can bring the plane down to about 10,000 feet, where the air is safely oxygen-rich, those masks keep everyone breathing normally. That's fairly important.
Ugh. "Oxygen-poor"? Air at 30,000 feet has just as much oxygen as air at sea level. The difference is the air pressure is lower, so the partial pressure of the oxygen in the air is lower than needed to oxygenate the blood. Above a certain altitude even breathing 100% oxygen is insufficient without pressurization.
And you will arrive at the crash site about 10-15 minutes before the fire-trucks. . . .Not my joke, stolen. . .
(
First they pull in, then they swing out. Watch them close or open one next time you fly. They are designed to be sealed by the higher cabin interior pressure.
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