Posted on 10/16/2017 6:37:49 PM PDT by sparklite2
The mid-air emergency happened an hour out of Perth on Sunday afternoon when its cabin pressure plummeted.
Malcolm and Janet Canning said it wasn't just passengers that were scared but airline staff too as the flight plummeted from 32,000 feet to just 10,000.
"The panic was escalated because of the behaviour of staff who were screaming and looked tearful," passenger Clare Askew said.
(Excerpt) Read more at au.news.yahoo.com ...
20,000 feet is a long way to plunge. That’s four miles!
Sounds like the flight crew did exactly the right thing.
Lost cabin pressure and immediately descended at max rate to 10000’.
Not pleasant. But it’s what you have to do...
Best to get to a breathable atmosphere while your passengers are all still alive. Sounds like the cabin crew wouldn’t have been of much help with the emergency masks.
It was a controlled descent (albeit at a high rate for a civilian airliner) which was exactly the thing to do given the loss of pressurization.
If you want to see plunge, try an F-15, idle, speed brakes deployed, from 40K or so.
I bet they’ll have to power wash the interior.
Maybe the airline crew should train for 20,000 foot drops so they won’t panic.
Apparently Ms. Askew thought the staff were to suspend their normal human instincts thinking they were facing death.
SOP is to get to 10K AGL ASAP because that is the threshold of breathable air in an unpressurized cabin.
The pilot probably pushed the "wheel" forward...hard...as soon at the oxygen warning bell rang.
“This......is your pilot.
We’re.....running a little......
low on air. So......we’ll be
dropping like a rock.
Please remain......seated. And
if you’re in the restroom....
....sucks to be you.”
Those seats are gonna need a deep cleaning....
Flew Air Asia from KL to Jakarta and it smelled like fuel in the cabin.
You are spot on. Would have been nice if the someone in the cockpit could have let the passengers and crew know that it was an intentional steep,descent but armchair qb’ing a situation like that isn’t reasonable in a situation like that.
The pilots did exactly what they should have done from what I’ve read.
“20,000 feet is a long way to plunge.”
Long enough for the Nasi goreng or Tempeh the passengers had for dinner to come up!
Lost cabin pressure at 32,000 feet. Dove to 10,000 feet were cabin pressure isn't needed.
Powered airplanes go "down" by reducing the throttle, not pointing the nose down. Loss of cabin pressure calls for an immediate descent. Airliners generally will maintain cabin pressure unless the leak is severe.
Small jets usually cruise at 40,000 feet plus but a pressurization leak will quickly cause death due to the small cabin (unless emergency oxygen is applied immediately).
WoooHooo, what a ride that was!!
Got to get it below 18,000 feet to breathable air. And fast.
Why didn’t the Captain come on and tell us?
He was too busy saving your butts? Nice work Crew!
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