Parachutes, Airlines and Airforce One

Factual Questions
1

  1. Let’s say I start my own airline. Can I give every passenger a parachute? After all, it’s my airline. It’s added safety. How can the FAA not let me do it?

  2. Why not give everyone on Airforce One parachutes? It’s probably the most desired target for terrorists. And don’t give me this " the President would look like a coward if he survived" stuff. If he jumped and survived an attack, the terrorists would look like morons.

2
  1. You can give each passenger a parachute; you just have to call it a skydiving club.
    2 What makes you so sure that AF1 doesn’t have parachutes for everyone?

But under what circumstances would you leave a plane traveling
at 35000 feet and 600 plus mph? If you say they would slow it down and go lower, then they would (arguably) be able to land it more or less safely. Right?

former Jarhead 22 66 399

3

Not being a skydiver, I haven’t read the FARs on the subject; but I wouldn’t be surprised if skydivers require some sort of training. But basically, what tekgraf said. Assume, though, that the aircraft can be slowed down to a reasonable speed and remain steady enough for an evacuation (but not being able to land?). Can you imagine the chaos of 300 paicky untrained people trying to get out? What about those who chicken out at the last second? Toss 'em out?

4

Parachutes would be futile in an airliner.

Firstly, an airliner usually carries between 200 to 500 passengers, travels between 400 and 600 miles per hour and at an altitude of around 30,000 feet. Not the best parachuting conditions, even for skilled skydivers - the average Joe Passenger would not be skilled enough to operate a parachute safely without any previous experience. Even if he did, it would be rather tough to get to an opening with around 300 other people trying to do the same thing and survive the sudden transition from zero velocity to nearly transonic speeds, and from cabin pressure to the equivalent pressure of the summit of Mt. Everest, all in a really short span of time.

I’m sure the FAA has considered this in detail, and someone who knows more than I do will hop along and give more information.