# Is it true that if you jump on an airplane you'll die? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 2, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157 "2011-01-02T18:58:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/1 "2011-01-02T18:58:13Z")
If you jump at the front of the plane, the plane will keep moving but you won’t, and you’ll splatter on the back wall. DO NOT DO IT. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/2 "2011-01-02T19:00:03Z")
Absolutely not. Edit to explain: If you’re in a plane going x miles per hour, then _you_ are also moving that fast. So jumping doesn’t slow your body down to some super low speed while the plane around you continues to move at its normal speed. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/3 "2011-01-02T19:00:46Z")
WTFO? ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/4 "2011-01-02T19:04:53Z")
PSXer… someone will be along with enough energy to explain why, when you jump, you continue to move at over 300 MPH, just as the plane does, and will land pretty much at the spot you jumped from, give or take an inch. Unless you can somehow stop your forward motion – in excess of 300 mph – I think you are pretty safe. Just throw something in the air next time on a plane. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/5 "2011-01-02T19:05:32Z")
How soon does your friend need to know? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/6 "2011-01-02T19:12:33Z")
It never occurred to you that it isn’t particularly _windy_ in the passenger cabin? ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/7 "2011-01-02T19:13:19Z")
The Earth is travelling around the Sun at nearly 30 km per **second**. Under no circumstances ever jump in the air. You will be left behind in the vacuum of space and will die a horrible death. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/8 "2011-01-02T19:15:36Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/9 "2011-01-02T19:24:16Z")
This is actually an interesting question. It all hinges on the fact inertia works: “A body in motion will remain in motion, going the same direction and at the same speed, unless acted upon by an external force.” This means that when you jump in an airplane, your body keeps going in the same direction as the aircraft and at the same speed, because there is no force acting upon it to change its velocity or direction. The same reason explains why people who jump into the air don’t fly away from the Earth, which is moving around the Sun at a substantial velocity. This is also why it takes quite a lot of energy to _leave_ orbit: Something tossed out of the International Space Station, for example, will tend to remain in orbit close to the ISS because it still has nearly all of the momentum it gained from being on the ISS in the first place. In order to chuck your tool belt down into the Indian Ocean, therefore, you’d need to give it a massive kick to cancel out the massive kick it got from the craft that launched it into orbit, so it no longer has the inertia to resist gravity’s pull towards the center of the Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/10 "2011-01-02T19:35:39Z")
Is the plane on a treadmill? ---
**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:** [January 2, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/11 "2011-01-02T19:37:12Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > This is actually an interesting question. Stupid ≠ Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/12 "2011-01-02T19:40:33Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > If you jump **at** the front of the plane, the plane will keep moving but you won’t, and you’ll splatter on the back wall. DO NOT DO IT. No, it’s when you jump **in** front of a plane that the splatter usually happens. I know, it happened to a friend of mine. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/13 "2011-01-02T19:43:59Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > No, it’s when you jump **in** front of a plane that the splatter usually happens. I know, it happened to a friend of mine. I think all of you are confused. The splat happens when you jump **off** an airplane. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/14 "2011-01-02T19:44:15Z")
**Derleth** : What if you gave the monkey wrench a good heave perpendicular to the current direction of travel? Would it spiral inwards? I mean, I get that the wrench would still have the ISS’ orbital speed no matter which way you chuck it, but it seems to me there are a couple velocities (i.e. speed and direction) that would take the wrench away from the ISS fairly quickly. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/15 "2011-01-02T19:45:10Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > No, it’s when you jump **in** front of a plane that the splatter usually happens. I know, it happened to a friend of mine. Oh, so that was the reason why Santa did not give me presents this year! > **[Funny Santa Pictures](http://didc.blogspot.com/2007/11/funny-santa-pictures.html)** > > Funny pics of pumpkins got me a bunch of visitors, as did funny photos and images of turkeys. So it's time for me to roll out some funny car... 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/16 "2011-01-02T19:54:15Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > I think all of you are confused. The splat happens when you jump **off** an airplane. Um, not that, either. The splat comes when you land, not when you jump. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/17 "2011-01-02T20:12:14Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > **Derleth** : What if you gave the monkey wrench a good heave perpendicular to the current direction of travel? Would it spiral inwards? I mean, I get that the wrench would still have the ISS’ orbital speed no matter which way you chuck it, but it seems to me there are a couple velocities (i.e. speed and direction) that would take the wrench away from the ISS fairly quickly. In low earth orbit, where the ISS is, you’re moving at around 8 km/s. I guess if you could throw a baseball at 90 mi/hr = 1.5 mi/min = 1/40 mi/s = .6/40 km/s = 1/24 km/s and if you threw it directly backward, you’d remove 1/200 of the speed. Maybe that would be enough to get it into an orbit that would increase atmospheric drag a significant amount, but it would still likely be in orbit quite a while. Sure, the object would move in relation to where you threw it, but it wouldn’t really change its orbit significantly. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/18 "2011-01-02T20:17:38Z")
Well, if you just dropped something off the space station, it would no longer receive the small boosts it needed to maintain orbit; even at 300 km up there’s a tiny bit of atmosphere slowing you down. It would spiral in eventually, just like Skylab and Mir, but would take quite a while. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/19 "2011-01-02T20:21:20Z")
I heard someone on telly say they thought the best way to survive a plane crash would be to do a jump just before the plane crashed into the ground, thus avoiding the impact. The secret, of course, was to jump at juuuust the right time… ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/20 "2011-01-02T20:34:17Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > If you jump at the front of the plane, the plane will keep moving but you won’t, and you’ll splatter on the back wall. DO NOT DO IT. I’ll take New Year Newbie Nyuck, Nyuck for $200, Alex. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157.md?page=2)