Posted on 08/21/2005 12:55:57 AM PDT by konaice
TESTS on victims of the Cyprus plane crash showed no sign of carbon monoxide poisoning, a finding that one aviation medicine expert said yesterday could indicate the 121 passengers and crew died from lack of oxygen.
...
"The fact that there is no evidence of carbon monoxide poisoning and evidence that the bodies were frozen suggests strongly that they died from anoxia -- the lack of oxygen," Mr Perry said.
"This would have come about from a catastrophic pressurisation failure at 35,000 feet with outside air temperatures of minus 50 or so and no air to speak of."
The plane was clearly in trouble at 35,000 feet when scrambled Greek fighter pilots could not see the pilot and said the co-pilot was slumped in his seat.
"People who did not manage to get oxygen masks on would have died within 15 to 20 seconds and then slowly frozen," Mr Perry said. "Those who did get their masks on would have lived longer, but they too would have suffered hypothermia quite quickly."
At the crash site, searchers found the cockpit voice recorder after six days of scouring the area, raising hopes the last conversations would shed light on the disaster. The other "black box", which records flight data, had already been found.
At least this lays to rest the tinfoil hat crowd's suggestion about the missing voice recorder being a sign of a planned event.
The instant the cabin loses pressure, air is going to rush out of your lungs. If you know this is coming, you might be able to hold your breath. But if you're surprised by it, that air is gone.
*hiding the tin foil* Ok, but where is the pilot??
Right, his body hasn't been found. Perhaps he bailed out at 35,000 ft leaving the cabin door wide open. Something strange like that must've happened.
Actually, if you read the story, the doctors report that no carbon monoxide was found in the bodies of the Pilot, the stewardess and the co-pilot, so that to me implies they did find him.
Speculation: The two people seen by the f16 pilots probably had to move the pilot to try to get at the controls. I speculate they dragged him back out of the cockpit, and when the crash happened his un-secured body became a missile and lands who knows where, maybe he's just a smudge somewhere.
Yeah, but you can hold your breath even after exhaleing longer than 15 seconds. Not that it matters, by 3 minutes everybody is blacked out.
Must have been faulty Oxy in the cockpit, preventing the crew from getting the plane down, they didn't even have time to turn the autopilot off.
The minus 50 is bad enough. Urine will freeze on the way to the ground. (In about a 5 foot long arc). A cupfull of warm water thrown into the air will come down as ice particles. Was there any wind chill? That would really speed things up.
First reports were that his body was missing. Also first reports indicated that the voice recorder was badly damaged and would be of no help to investigators. Obviously both of these initial reports have now changed.
Why are they not suspecting sabotage? that someone opened the cabin door? Seems that one event would result in all the effects they are describing.
Ok, Joe, anything you say, living here in Alaska I wouldn't know anything about cold weather would I...
Kids play hockey here in Alaska at 40 below.
Wind? in a closed airplane?
Well they said they found it, but nobody has said it will be of any use. I read that it only holds 30 minutes before it records over the tape loop again, and it was out of contact for longer than that.
Tkae care, it's 5AM and good night all.
Kids here are wussies. They just ride their bicycles to school when it is -30.
As for the airplane, I don't recall hearing what led to the cabin pressure failure, and I was wondering if there was a breach in the cabin--which just might lead to wind in the cabin...
I never saw any reports from the F16 pilots of any holes, and they followd that plane for 20 minutes before it finaly augered in. They had video of it too, but none of that has been released yet as far as I know.
While decompression might take place relatively slowly, with the effects of anoxia sneaking up on the unsuspecting passengers and crew, that would not necessarily cause the cabin air to assume outside temperatures very fast.
Tear a hatch loose, though and things would be different, with forcible displacement of the warmer cabin air. There should have been frost on the inside of the windows, too.
The brain can take a lack of oxygen for at least a couple of minutes.
Another possibility is that the cabin was pressurized. Possibly even over pressurized preventing the oxygen masks from working.
If the air conditioning system was plugged up, the old air wouldn't get flushed out. With over one hundred people on board the CO2 levels would increase rapidly if the air isn't flushed out of the cabin continuously.
Basically it would be like putting all those people in a closed container. You're gonna die if you can't get it open.
On the plane there was nothing to open. Oxygen mask or not.
At least that's my theory.
Difficult if not impossible to accomplish in a pressurized airliner.
This is a quote from the story:
"Of six victims examined, five, including the co-pilot, showed no signs of breathing in carbon monoxide, while a stewardess had a level of 7 per cent, which was not considered dangerous, Mr Koutsaftis told reporters"
If you have a quote to suggest an examination was done on the Captain, please provide it.
Your comparison does not apply here. No one can "hold his breath for a minute" while experiencing the ambient pressure at 33,000 ft.
Hypoxia.
"While the immediate mechanical effects of rapid decompression on occupants of a pressurized cabin will seldom be incapacitating, the menace of subsequent hypoxia becomes more formidable with increasing altitudes. The time of consciousness after loss of cabin pressure is reduced due to offgassing of oxygen from venous blood to the lungs."
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