Apparition

Why are there flotation devices under plane seats instead of parachutes ?

boxst

Hello

Because they are cheaper to replace when the 'plane gets smashed into millions of little bits.

Steve.

Apparition

erm............. how or why would you want to replace them when the plane is in millions of pieces?

Gordo

haha - when are you going to get the chance to chute out of a pressurised aircraft? apparently the floats are sod all use - the chances of surviving a crash into water are next to nil - but you have to keep the cattle, I mean passengers, happy.

boxst

Hello

Well, when you replace the 'plane you have to give the illusion that this one will be safe if anything happens.

So it's much more cost effective to fit little bits of plastic at about 50p, rather than a much more expensive parachute.

Steve.

Scooby96

i think its down to the law of probabilities - lets face it when something goes wrong it usually happens in nano seconds and usually over water (or more likely to be over water as the earth is covered in more water than land). so if you were going to crash its highly unlikely that you could get 3,4,500 people to put parachutes on and get them to form and orderly queue before the plane hits the water - once its on the pond what use is a 'chute gonna be?????

Scooby96

i'm not against chuting up when i get on a plane (just in case) but theres always gonna be some prat that pulls the rip-cord on their way to the toilet!

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

Always sit at the back - you get a longer ride & you never hear of planes crashing tail end first.

D

RichS

I'd sooner they replaced the life jacket with an "Emergency Last Beer & Ciggy You'll Ever Have Kit"

boxst

Scooby96:

You'd be much better "shooting up" as the only way to survive a 30000 feet freefall is if your body is in a totally relaxed state.

Parachutes at that height wouldn't be too much use.......

Steve.

Scooby96

probably most do crash tail first as they're usually trying to pull the ****** up to avoid something - usually the ground or the sea!

Scooby96

I must have spelt shooting up wrong incorrectly as thats exactly what I meant!

boxst

Dunk:

Sitting at the back gives you the worst possible ride though (assuming you don't crash!).

Steve.

Apparition

PML.................. It was a JOKE BOYS !

Wow ... are you all always soooooooooo serious on a Friday ? Lighten up , the weekend is almost upon us.
And who cares anyways?

RichS

Even better:

You could pay a little extra to have them fit whatever "Emergency Kit" you choose.

What's on the "Emergency Kits" menu then?

1. Parachute
2. Life Jacket
3. Last Beer & Ciggy You'll Ever Have Kit
4. Kylie Kit

etc.....

Scooby96

BJ from a trolly-dolly?

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

Anyone got a spare plane ? With a couple of willing volunteers I'm happy to see the theory put to test.

D

Fatman

<muppety>
Haven't you seen Indiana Jones? They use a life raft as a freefall/parachute device - so it must be possible. Why would you need a parachute as well?
</muppety>

Seriously - most people wouldn't be capable of using a parachute.

SJ_Skyline

WTF is the point of a floatation device? Once the plane nose dives into the sea you will be dead. Floating is one thing dead bodies are rather good at!

Duck_Pond

May as well equip the plane with a decent dinner jacket under each seat. It's about as much use as the life jacket, and it saves on the funeral costs in that you already look smart for the open coffin viewing...

RichS

LOL Duck_Pond

5. Dinner Jacket and pre-funeral grooming kit.

Fatman

You seen Fight Club? There's a scene in an airliner when they talk about the usefulness of having an "Exit Door" procedure for use in-flight.

There is no point - it's an illusion of safety. If the plane goes bang or hits the ground/water - there's very little chance of anyone surviving. But passengers find it conforting to think that if the worst did happen, they'd have an escape route. Something they could do to try and save themselves.

The illusion of safety. Of course, there probably have been instances where escape chutes, life rafts etc have been used. But they would have been low-speed events. How much passenger mileage is done at low speeds? Very little.

Duck_Pond

Much like the age-old "Oh you're more likely to be involved in an accident on the way to work in your car, than flying on an aeroplane."

Hmm. Let's see. I'm in control of my car, travelling in a non-pressurised cabin, at up to 100mph (allegedly), with a couple of gallons of fuel behind me, and at the lofty altitude of 1 foot above the ground.

Or... I'm not in control of a highly pressurised aluminium tube, doing over 500mph, carrying hundreds of gallons of the most flammable fuel around, at 35,000 feet...

The theory doesn't quite wash with me...

ScoobyWon't

"Wish I had a parachute when the plane broke apart in mid-air"

camk

Duck-Pond,
However they still don't crash that often, I believe the urban myth stat is that you'd need to fly once a day for 26,000 years to reach the mythical crash point. Known my luck of course my turn would be sometime in the first week.
Here is a better Question, has ANYONE on here(no mates of aunties stories please) had a problem whilst flying.
I've been flying as a passenger on average probably 2-3 return trips a month for the last 6-7 years. I've only had one 'incident', a birdstrike on takeoff on Stockholm and we aborted the takeoff, amazing braking if I remember.

Duck_Pond

I don't fly as frequently as you do, but working with the airlines of Europe means that I do fly several times a year. But you're right, I haven't ever had an incident on board (frantically touching wood here), other than clear-air when the plane drops, and your stomach turns over. Last "incident" was hearing the air conditioning system freeze slightly, so ice rattled down the side of fittings above our heads.

One of the salesmen here had a problem on one flight where the engine encountered problems, and it was turned around and landed again. That shook him up quite badly.

boxst

CamK:

One problem, one nightmare. I used to fly several times a week, around Europe and the Middle East and to the States / Far East twice a month. Less so now thankfully, but still quite often:

Problem: Coming in to Heathrow on a Virgin flight from Los Angeles and the landing gear wouldn't deploy. The captain said that this was the case after about 30 minutes of flying. He then tried some interesting "manoeuvres" to dislodge the landing gear. It didn't work. So they landed on foam on the runway. Everybody on the 'plane was completely silent and thought they were going to die. The landing was much smoother than most!

Nightmare: Travelling back from the Middle East and before we took off the pilot said it would be a bit rough as there were storm clouds and the path didn't allow them to get high enough. Took off.. fine. Then 30 minutes later the 'plane dropped 500 meters, shook like hell, oxygen masks came down. Complete panic and mayhem. Captain said "Sorry" but it would be like this for a while. And it was. For three hours. The 'plane would travel for a little while, drop several hundred meters with lightning around and shake. I thought that I was going to die.

Steve.

Mungo

It sooo unlikely that a plane would ever land on water in such a manner as to allow the passengers to deploy the inflatable chutes and escape into the sea. Even if a pilot was able to bring the thing down from 35000 feet to sea level, the minimum landing speed must be about 100mph - what do you think are the chances of pulling off a decent landing on a North Atlantic swell?
Maybe this dates back to a time when planes flew lower and slower and a sea landing wasn't totally out of the question.
Are there any commercial pilots on here to confirm whether they are trained in landing on water?

Apparition

Well........... Friday seems to be the day for stirring thoughts ! Good response guys

Leslie

In the case of you suffering a serious engine failure, the possibility of "ditching" or landing on water is always a consideration and there is advice available for each aircraft type on how best to do it. Trials are done with scale models to predict how to land a particular aircraft on water. The life jackets are provided to give passengers the best chance to stay afloat after ditching when attempting to board the large rubber dinghies. As was mentioned, there is so much sea about that on most routes a ditching could well be necessary.

The aircraft would be landed in a particular direction in relation to the waves and it would be at the slowest speed possible. There is a good chance that most aircraft would survive a ditching and float long enough to get the occupants onto the dinghies.

Aircraft fuel is nothing like so flammable as petrol. Modern jet fuel is kerosene based and the flashpoint is higher than petrol.

If the engines failed at 35,000 feet, the aircraft could be glided down to sea level quite easily as long as the flying controls are functioning. It is certainly not going to go into a terminal velocity dive because the engines have failed.

The landing speed of a jet airliner is not so much faster than older airliners.

All this is the reason that airliners have to be equipped with lifejackets and dinghies. As was also mentioned, it would not be possible to bail out of a pressurised aircraft with a parachute since the design of the aircraft would not allow it. Even de-pressurised it would be difficult if not impossible to open the plug type doors.

Hope this makes you feel better

Les