# Duration of air sucked out of plane/space ship as depicted in movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [May 20, 2024, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798 "2024-05-20T09:17:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/21 "2024-05-23T11:21:05Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Of course, this is also a film where a self-professed lover of gold (“All my life, I have been in love with its color, its brilliance, its divine heaviness. I welcome any enterprise that will increase my stock!”) agrees to help the Chinese government nuke the United States Bullion Depository and doesn’t even take an ingot as a keepsake, A point I’ve made repeatedly on this Board. There’s no way Goldfinger wouldn’t have reached through the bars into one of those conveniently at-hand ingots and carried it with him, no matter how cumbersome it was. Years later he could still point to the damned thing in his office and say it was the only non-radioactive gold left from Fort Knox. Well, at least he wasn’t eaten by a golden octopus like that other guy who tried to rob Fort Knox. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/22 "2024-05-23T12:08:52Z")
There are “dado” vents along the perimeter of the passenger floor, designed to allow air to flow between the two levels. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/23 "2024-05-23T12:39:39Z")
There’s a scene in The Expanse (first book, or S1E4 of the TV series) where the crew are on a space ship, in a closed room that is suddenly pierced through by a small high-velocity projectile. The holes on opposite walls of the room are a few inches in diameter (about 8 inches in the TV show). After a couple of seconds their voices no longer carry and they start getting dizzy. There’s no hurricane-force wind, no need to hang on to furniture. They plug the holes with any flat objects they have on hand, and then use some purpose-built sealant to complete the seals. In the book, the duration of the leaks is described as 15 seconds. Once the holes are sealed, the ship’s life support system is able to restore pressure. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/24 "2024-05-23T13:49:54Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > And can a fat man actually be sucked through a small airplane window? (Do not need answer fast.) Not sure about a fat man but an adult woman was partially & fatally sucked out an airplane window in the 2018 [Southwest Flight 1380](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1380) incident, & she _was_ wearing her lap belt > [@6abc](#): > > [When](https://6abc.com/philadelphia-southwest-airlines-emergency-landing-international-airport/4686350/) flight attendant Rachel Fernheimer got to row 14, she saw a woman still restrained by her lap belt but with her head, torso and arm hanging out a window. > > Fernheimer grabbed one of the woman’s legs while flight attendant Seanique Mallory grabbed her lower body. They described being unable to bring the woman back in the plane until two male passengers stepped in to help. She would have been gone if she wasn’t belted in ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/25 "2024-05-23T14:52:50Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > IIRC from the news, the fellow sitting near where the door plug popped off that Boeing, his shirt was ripped off and sucked out (tee shirt?) but because he had his seatbelt on, he was not. (How would that happen? A shirt could rip apart in that kind of wind. If it the rush of air pulled it up over his head he may have raised his arms and let it come off so he could see or move his arms freely. Perhaps not aware of what he was doing in the circumstances, maybe had no idea what was happening or what or why he did anything at that point. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/26 "2024-05-23T15:03:48Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > A shirt could rip apart in that kind of wind. If it the rush of air pulled it up over his head he may have raised his arms and let it come off so he could see or move his arms freely. It’s actually pretty common for the passengers to lose some or all of their clothing during a mid-air disaster. > **[Why Were Some Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Victims Found Without Their Clothes?](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2014/07/why-were-mh17-victims-missing-their-clothes.html)** > > An explanation. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/27 "2024-05-23T16:28:09Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > After a couple of seconds their voices no longer carry and they start getting dizzy. In _RingWorld_ there’s a mention of a hole on the sidewall a ways up, and it results in a perpetual horizontal hurricane near the wall, high up in that locale (due to differential centrifugal force). The point being, the volume of air being lost compared total volume was small enough to last a very long time, so the effects are mainly local. I haven’t seen (or read) Expanse, but it seems to me the effect from a tiny hole (bullet-sized?) should take quite a while to affect an appreciable volume. The scene in Goldfinger with a hole over a foot square seems to last far too long for a small jet. I’ve seen items that say a person experiencing depressurization at jet altitude (33,0000ft and above) should pass out within a minute from lack of oxygen, yet people climb Everest (29,000ft.) Do they breathe oxygen all the way near the top, or is it an occasional “refresh” breath, or a trickle on a nosepiece? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/28 "2024-05-23T16:42:05Z")
Nitpick: Fist-of-God was created when a moon-sized meteor impacted the “bottom” (outside) of Ringworld. The hollow mountain it created was over 1,000 miles high, so the puncture didn’t let much air out. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/29 "2024-05-23T17:02:24Z")
Also, Ringworld was made of an incredibly strong material. A hole in [_scrith_](https://larryniven.fandom.com/wiki/Scrith) would not widen from the force of air rushing through it. Airplane fuselages aren’t made of such sturdy stuff. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/30 "2024-05-23T17:59:45Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Fist-of-God was created when a moon-sized meteor impacted the “bottom” (outside) of Ringworld. The hollow mountain it created was over 1,000 miles high, so the puncture didn’t let much air out. There was also a different hole - a sidewall meteor hole. Again, fairly high up the wall that the “storm” it created did not appreciably affect the “ground” level. (Perhaps it was a later novel?) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/31 "2024-05-23T18:00:39Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > I’ve seen items that say a person experiencing depressurization at jet altitude (33,0000ft and above) should pass out within a minute from lack of oxygen, yet people climb Everest (29,000ft.) Do they breathe oxygen all the way near the top, or is it an occasional “refresh” breath, or a trickle on a nosepiece? It varies, but some people try to do it without oxy. But they do some very extensive acclimation to thin air, spending weeks at lower, yet still rather high altitude. The south base camp, for example, is at 17,600 ft (5364 m). ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/32 "2024-05-23T18:03:09Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Nitpick: > Fist-of-God was created when a moon-sized meteor impacted the “bottom” (outside) of Ringworld. The hollow mountain it created was over 1,000 miles high, so the puncture didn’t let much air out. Nitpickier: The horizontal hurricane and Fist-of-God were two different meteor holes. The hurricane was from a much smaller one. Fist of God would have drained the air much faster if its hole hadn’t extended above the atmosphere. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/33 "2024-05-23T18:08:08Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > I haven’t seen (or read) Expanse, but it seems to me the effect from a tiny hole (bullet-sized?) should take quite a while to affect an appreciable volume. The bullet was actually a round from a ship based rail gun, and was only one of many that hit the ship. So it was a decent size, just giving them enough time to patch it before it was too late. Also, while the compartment in question only had two holes from a single round, the rest of the ship was also venting from the other holes that had been punched in it. It was a battleship that ended up on the wrong end of a major battle, so it was pretty beat up. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/34 "2024-05-23T18:13:33Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > I haven’t seen (or read) Expanse, but it seems to me the effect from a tiny hole (bullet-sized?) should take quite a while to affect an appreciable volume. The scene in Goldfinger with a hole over a foot square seems to last far too long for a small jet. Just now does the _greater_ vulnerability of German Zeppelins to incendiary ammunition make sense. Previously, I thought that if they were simply strafed with a few bullets they would immediately, albeit not necessarily catastrophically, fall to the ground, making the additional flamboyancy (in multiple ways) of the incendiary bullets unneeded overkill. But the Zeppelins were not even at a pressure differential, so their hydrogen would have to waft out from the top, giving them time to scoot back across their own lines at least if they didn’t erupt into flames. I’m still not sure that a slightly damaged Zeppelin would be able to fly all the way back across the English Channel if they had just bombed London, but perhaps I should start another thread on it if I am that curious. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798/35 "2024-05-23T20:55:44Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Just now does the _greater_ vulnerability of German Zeppelins to incendiary ammunition make sense. Previously, I thought that if they were simply strafed with a few bullets they would immediately, albeit not necessarily catastrophically, fall to the ground, making the additional flamboyancy (in multiple ways) of the incendiary bullets unneeded overkill. > > But the Zeppelins were not even at a pressure differential, so their hydrogen would have to waft out from the top, giving them time to scoot back across their own lines at least if they didn’t erupt into flames. I’m still not sure that a slightly damaged Zeppelin would be able to fly all the way back across the English Channel if they had just bombed London, but perhaps I should start another thread on it if I am that curious. Even incendiary bullets didn’t do the trick easily. During the WWI terror bombing of London from dirigibles specially designed incendiary bullets did not easily ignite the hydrogen. A biplane with a machine gun firing straight up from the cockpit of biplane had to make continued passes directly underneath a dirigible firing up into the same spot before enough of the low pressure hydrogen escaped and mixed with enough air to combust. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duration-of-air-sucked-out-of-plane-space-ship-as-depicted-in-movies/1001798.md?page=1)