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Silvermouse
RealPoor Jedi
Joined: 12 Oct 2002
Posts: 11015
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 Posted: 05/27/05 - 16:48 Post subject: Terrorist/Airplane question
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Couldn't terrorists terrorize a plane simply by opening an emergency exit and decompressing the cabin? Or is it harder than that?
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Owyyn
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 2900
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Posted: 05/27/05 - 16:49 Post subject:
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Why when they can just crash it into something?
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Nahualli
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 8461
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Posted: 05/27/05 - 17:10 Post subject: Re: Terrorist/Airplane question
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| Silvermouse wrote: | | Couldn't terrorists terrorize a plane simply by opening an emergency exit and decompressing the cabin? Or is it harder than that? |
Your wording makes this question tricky. Sure they can terrorize the shit out of the plane, but they may not be able to crash it. It's not a guaranteed way to crash a plane. There have been a handful of instances (the only one I can think of offhand is the Hawaiian Air incident) where a plane is able to land even with a gaping hole or other damage to the body of the aircraft. I think unless they hit the hydraulics or a part of a wing or something they won't make the plane go down, and even then it may not succeed. I think the more immediate danger with decompressing the cabin like that is everyone on board suffocating or freezing to death, not to mention being sucked out of the plane.
Edit : nm... you said emergency exit. I don't know about those.
-Nah-
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Silvermouse
RealPoor Jedi
Joined: 12 Oct 2002
Posts: 11015
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Posted: 05/27/05 - 17:24 Post subject:
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| Owyyn wrote: | | Why when they can just crash it into something? |
Because taking control of a plane is harder than opening an exit.
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Eindar
Can't Stop Posting
Joined: 02 Nov 2002
Posts: 580
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Posted: 05/27/05 - 17:33 Post subject:
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Like Nah said, a depressurized cabin won't really effect the stability of the plane that much. Sure, it's harder to fly, and the captain is going to make an emergency landing at the next available strip, but I would say the chance of it causing the plane to crash is ~5%. We flew a 727 out of Indy a couple weeks ago that wasn't pressurized in the belly (no animals or plants on board).
I think you might kill a few people due to them being sucked out, however I'm pretty sure that the flight engineer has to flip a switch for you to be able to open the emergency exit. One thing is for sure, the cold wouldn't kill anyone. We accidentally trapped a guy in the belly of one of our planes, and he made it to the destination in one piece 
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Yepyep
Total Newbie
Joined: 01 Jul 2004
Posts: 15
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Posted: 05/27/05 - 17:36 Post subject: if i was to take a guess...
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My guess is that its probably next to impossible to open any of the compartment doors, while the plane is traveling at 35,000 feet.
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motherface
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 12 Mar 2003
Posts: 3407
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Posted: 05/27/05 - 17:49 Post subject:
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| Eindar wrote: | Like Nah said, a depressurized cabin won't really effect the stability of the plane that much. Sure, it's harder to fly, and the captain is going to make an emergency landing at the next available strip, but I would say the chance of it causing the plane to crash is ~5%. We flew a 727 out of Indy a couple weeks ago that wasn't pressurized in the belly (no animals or plants on board).
I think you might kill a few people due to them being sucked out, however I'm pretty sure that the flight engineer has to flip a switch for you to be able to open the emergency exit. One thing is for sure, the cold wouldn't kill anyone. We accidentally trapped a guy in the belly of one of our planes, and he made it to the destination in one piece |
I imagine there's a difference between changing pressure gradually as you climb in altitude and going from sea-level pressure to 30000 feet in < 60 seconds. Someone is likely to get blown out if he/she isn't expecting it.
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Okami
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 2242
Location: The new board
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Posted: 05/27/05 - 18:16 Post subject:
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but, didn't some stowaway in the wheel well get Hypothermia or something? Or maybe they froze to death. Was a while ago, so a little foggy on it.
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Cralen
Luke Warm
Joined: 13 Oct 2002
Posts: 151
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Posted: 05/27/05 - 18:56 Post subject:
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The tv show Mythbusters attempted to suck a dummy out of a window of a pressurized airplane and failed on three trys. They used a handgun to blow out the window.
You can't open an exterior door of an airplane because of the pressure difference.
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Eindar
Can't Stop Posting
Joined: 02 Nov 2002
Posts: 580
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Posted: 05/27/05 - 20:01 Post subject:
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| Cralen wrote: | The tv show Mythbusters attempted to suck a dummy out of a window of a pressurized airplane and failed on three trys. They used a handgun to blow out the window.
You can't open an exterior door of an airplane because of the pressure difference. |
This is bad physics, unless the emergency doors swing in, which is unlikely. the inside of the plane has higher pressure, which means that the emergency exit would actually be EASIER to push open. However, the force of the wind would probably make it nearly impossible to open the door.
Regardless, with all the arming and de-arming the pilots have to do in other areas to prevent the emergency slide from deploying, I can't believe that they wouldn't have a safety switch to keep people from accidentally (kid, retard, etc.) opening the emergency exit while in flight.
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