Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. WTF?

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

Even if the plane was made of super durable material that would not break during a crash, the shock would be absorbed by the passengers inside, and they would still die.

But if there were some special parachutes designed to open if the plane was falling to reduce the shock(provided the parachutes themselves don't get damaged), it could help significantly.

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[Cryptopher]

By special parachutes do you mean for the plane itself or for the passengers inside?

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

By special parachutes do you mean for the plane itself or for the passengers inside?

Both would be nice. I mean, shoot, do you want to die with the plane crashing in the ocean(provided the parachutes on the plane itself didn't work or not much) or do you want to land in the ocean safely with a parachute.

Of course there are other scenarios, staying too much in the water would result in irreversible damage to your skin, unless you get eaten by a shark prior to that or simply dying from hypothermia.

As for pressure and altitude, I am not familiar with those to give other conditions where the parachute idea might fail.

[Oldminer]

"If the "black box" flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash. Why isn't the whole damn plane made of that shit?"

lol for the same reason cars are no longer built like tanks. Engineers discovered in the 70's/80's that their much better off making cars with 'crumple zones' to take the shock of impact. In the case of the black box, firstly, it is not located on the outside of an airplane but is surrounded by other material to absorb impact of a crash, and secondly I read somewhere they are encased in an impact absorbing housing. Even then they can still suffer damage.

[Cryptopher]

By special parachutes do you mean for the plane itself or for the passengers inside?

Both would be nice. I mean, shoot, do you want to die with the plane crashing in the ocean(provided the parachutes on the plane itself didn't work or not much) or do you want to land in the ocean safely with a parachute.

Of course there are other scenarios, staying too much in the water would result in irreversible damage to your skin, unless you get eaten by a shark prior to that or simply dying from hypothermia.

As for pressure and altitude, I am not familiar with those to give other conditions where the parachute idea might fail.

I think that they don't include, or certainly advertise parachutes in planes on the basis that it is essentially suggesting that there is a reasonable chance of a disaster, rather than as a safety measure. Furthermore, the vast majority of passengers won't know how to deploy a parachute correctly, there would be a scramble and other disasters.

Of course, in the horrific scenario whereby the plane you are on is going down you would surely do anything for even a chance to survive, but I think that there isn't a good case for putting parachutes on commercial planes.

Aviation safety is still fantastic, and fatalities are as low as ever, despite the recent tragedies. A lot of these scenarios can be avoided with reasonable measures.

[michaelwang33]

"If the "black box" flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash. Why isn't the whole damn plane made of that shit?"

The plane would not be able to fly. It would be a giant tank with wings, wings that are pointless.

The passengers of the plane would also likely die regardless in the event of a crash because of the shock impact.

[MegaHustlr]

By special parachutes do you mean for the plane itself or for the passengers inside?

Both would be nice. I mean, shoot, do you want to die with the plane crashing in the ocean(provided the parachutes on the plane itself didn't work or not much) or do you want to land in the ocean safely with a parachute.

Of course there are other scenarios, staying too much in the water would result in irreversible damage to your skin, unless you get eaten by a shark prior to that or simply dying from hypothermia.

As for pressure and altitude, I am not familiar with those to give other conditions where the parachute idea might fail.

You can't parachute out of a plane for several reasons. It's just not feasble in pretty much every instance. You can't even open cabin doors due to cabin pressure. Jets just arent made to be jumped out of. Anyone jumping out of one anyway would likely just get sucked into the jet engines or go smashing into the tail section.

[Lorenzo]

"If the "black box" flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash. Why isn't the whole damn plane made of that shit?"

I think the black boxes that were in the planes that crashed into the WTS were completely destroyed. Not that it would have made a difference anyway.

By special parachutes do you mean for the plane itself or for the passengers inside?

Both would be nice. I mean, shoot, do you want to die with the plane crashing in the ocean(provided the parachutes on the plane itself didn't work or not much) or do you want to land in the ocean safely with a parachute.

Of course there are other scenarios, staying too much in the water would result in irreversible damage to your skin, unless you get eaten by a shark prior to that or simply dying from hypothermia.

As for pressure and altitude, I am not familiar with those to give other conditions where the parachute idea might fail.

You can't parachute out of a plane for several reasons. It's just not feasble in pretty much every instance. You can't even open cabin doors due to cabin pressure. Jets just arent made to be jumped out of. Anyone jumping out of one anyway would likely just get sucked into the jet engines or go smashing into the tail section.

If I remember correctly, there was a person who jumped out of a plane with a parachute back in the 50's or 60's. He had a gun and stole something like a million dollars and hasn't been seen since. He didn't use a normal door though. Rather, he jumped from a door at the back of the plane.

And I believe it is possible for the captain to depressurize the cabin too if required. Once a captain forgot to turn this switch on and as the plane took off, everyone inside slowly passed out. Happened in Greece I think.

[Gleb Gamow]

"If the "black box" flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash. Why isn't the whole damn plane made of that shit?"

I think the black boxes that were in the planes that crashed into the WTS were completely destroyed. Not that it would have made a difference anyway.

By special parachutes do you mean for the plane itself or for the passengers inside?

Both would be nice. I mean, shoot, do you want to die with the plane crashing in the ocean(provided the parachutes on the plane itself didn't work or not much) or do you want to land in the ocean safely with a parachute.

Of course there are other scenarios, staying too much in the water would result in irreversible damage to your skin, unless you get eaten by a shark prior to that or simply dying from hypothermia.

As for pressure and altitude, I am not familiar with those to give other conditions where the parachute idea might fail.

You can't parachute out of a plane for several reasons. It's just not feasble in pretty much every instance. You can't even open cabin doors due to cabin pressure. Jets just arent made to be jumped out of. Anyone jumping out of one anyway would likely just get sucked into the jet engines or go smashing into the tail section.

If I remember correctly, there was a person who jumped out of a plane with a parachute back in the 50's or 60's. He had a gun and stole something like a million dollars and hasn't been seen since. He didn't use a normal door though. Rather, he jumped from a door at the back of the plane.

And I believe it is possible for the captain to depressurize the cabin too if required. Once a captain forgot to turn this switch on and as the plane took off, everyone inside slowly passed out. Happened in Greece I think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

[Lorenzo]

"If the "black box" flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash. Why isn't the whole damn plane made of that shit?"

I think the black boxes that were in the planes that crashed into the WTS were completely destroyed. Not that it would have made a difference anyway.

By special parachutes do you mean for the plane itself or for the passengers inside?

Both would be nice. I mean, shoot, do you want to die with the plane crashing in the ocean(provided the parachutes on the plane itself didn't work or not much) or do you want to land in the ocean safely with a parachute.

Of course there are other scenarios, staying too much in the water would result in irreversible damage to your skin, unless you get eaten by a shark prior to that or simply dying from hypothermia.

As for pressure and altitude, I am not familiar with those to give other conditions where the parachute idea might fail.

You can't parachute out of a plane for several reasons. It's just not feasble in pretty much every instance. You can't even open cabin doors due to cabin pressure. Jets just arent made to be jumped out of. Anyone jumping out of one anyway would likely just get sucked into the jet engines or go smashing into the tail section.

If I remember correctly, there was a person who jumped out of a plane with a parachute back in the 50's or 60's. He had a gun and stole something like a million dollars and hasn't been seen since. He didn't use a normal door though. Rather, he jumped from a door at the back of the plane.

And I believe it is possible for the captain to depressurize the cabin too if required. Once a captain forgot to turn this switch on and as the plane took off, everyone inside slowly passed out. Happened in Greece I think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

Yup, that's the one. Seems like it was a bomb rather than a gun however. My mistake.

[DrG]

Given that a jet like a 747-400 can weigh over 600 TONS we fully loaded you're not going to have any kind of parachute deploy to stop that thing from falling.  Barring the plane losing a wing like MH17 the glide a plane has would still provide more lift than any parachute.

[Bobsurplus]

Given that a jet like a 747-400 can weigh over 600 TONS we fully loaded you're not going to have any kind of parachute deploy to stop that thing from falling.  Barring the plane losing a wing like MH17 the glide a plane has would still provide more lift than any parachute.

So you think it's impossible to add a parachute to a jetliner? I figures the same thing but I have seen some serious sized things use parachutes to land "safely"

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

Given that a jet like a 747-400 can weigh over 600 TONS we fully loaded you're not going to have any kind of parachute deploy to stop that thing from falling.  Barring the plane losing a wing like MH17 the glide a plane has would still provide more lift than any parachute.

You know that the U.S plans to send people to Mars by 2025, right? And they will all be in a spacecraft that when entering the atmosphere of mars will still hurl towards it at incredible speeds, at which point, they will use a parachute most likely to decrease the speed of their descent.

So I am very sure it's possible to do it.

[notbatman]

Given that a jet like a 747-400 can weigh over 600 TONS we fully loaded you're not going to have any kind of parachute deploy to stop that thing from falling.  Barring the plane losing a wing like MH17 the glide a plane has would still provide more lift than any parachute.

You know that the U.S plans to send people to Mars by 2025, right? And they will all be in a spacecraft that when entering the atmosphere of mars will still hurl towards it at incredible speeds, at which point, they will use a parachute most likely to decrease the speed of their descent.

So I am very sure it's possible to do it.

People to Mars in the next 10 years, yawn...

[waqas]

Given that a jet like a 747-400 can weigh over 600 TONS we fully loaded you're not going to have any kind of parachute deploy to stop that thing from falling.  Barring the plane losing a wing like MH17 the glide a plane has would still provide more lift than any parachute.

You know that the U.S plans to send people to Mars by 2025, right? And they will all be in a spacecraft that when entering the atmosphere of mars will still hurl towards it at incredible speeds, at which point, they will use a parachute most likely to decrease the speed of their descent.

So I am very sure it's possible to do it.

People to Mars in the next 10 years, yawn...

If Peoples going to Mars then we have Terrorists and Politicians also which is not good signals for Mars

[notbatman]

Given that a jet like a 747-400 can weigh over 600 TONS we fully loaded you're not going to have any kind of parachute deploy to stop that thing from falling.  Barring the plane losing a wing like MH17 the glide a plane has would still provide more lift than any parachute.

You know that the U.S plans to send people to Mars by 2025, right? And they will all be in a spacecraft that when entering the atmosphere of mars will still hurl towards it at incredible speeds, at which point, they will use a parachute most likely to decrease the speed of their descent.

So I am very sure it's possible to do it.

People to Mars in the next 10 years, yawn...

If Peoples going to Mars then we have Terrorists and Politicians also which is not good signals for Mars

Not that going to Mars wouldn't be interesting, the cost involved makes me lol at anybody who thinks it's going to happen within the next 10 years.

[RiffRofl]

This shit is still so rare 

[escrow.dude]

Given that a jet like a 747-400 can weigh over 600 TONS we fully loaded you're not going to have any kind of parachute deploy to stop that thing from falling.  Barring the plane losing a wing like MH17 the glide a plane has would still provide more lift than any parachute.

You know that the U.S plans to send people to Mars by 2025, right? And they will all be in a spacecraft that when entering the atmosphere of mars will still hurl towards it at incredible speeds, at which point, they will use a parachute most likely to decrease the speed of their descent.

So I am very sure it's possible to do it.

This kind of system would likely be very expensive. It would be even more expensive when compared to how rarely planes are shot down and otherwise "fall out of the sky"

[dreamspark]

Thats one of the things isnt it really, the statistics still show how unlikely you are to be in an air disaster, hence why systems such as parachutes just aren't developed.

[DrG]

Given that a jet like a 747-400 can weigh over 600 TONS we fully loaded you're not going to have any kind of parachute deploy to stop that thing from falling.  Barring the plane losing a wing like MH17 the glide a plane has would still provide more lift than any parachute.

You know that the U.S plans to send people to Mars by 2025, right? And they will all be in a spacecraft that when entering the atmosphere of mars will still hurl towards it at incredible speeds, at which point, they will use a parachute most likely to decrease the speed of their descent.

So I am very sure it's possible to do it.

Possible yes.  Realistic, hell no.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/695216679/ATK-tests-the-largest-parachute-in-the-world.html?pg=all - would be able to control a planes fall, but it would cost more than the plane itself.

US can't even build a new nuclear power plant by 2025, how the hell can they get people to Mars lol.  My dad worked at JPL and I have always loved space exploration but 2025 yeah right.

A tin can falling to Mars designed for vertical descent using a paracute is different from a fixed wing aircraft designed for subsonic horizontal flight.