# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/81 "2011-01-03T22:29:03Z")
> [@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. Well, the OP never said you were in or even on the plane when you jumped. Maybe it’s a new form of BASE jumping. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/82 "2011-01-03T22:38:36Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Then how did I fly back from California to Philadelphia? Do they change the direction of rotation depending on where you’re going? 😕 They just hop across the equator - the two hemispheres of the Earth rotate in opposite directions. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/83 "2011-01-04T00:33:27Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > If they showed it in reverse, wouldn’t the plane seem to be flying backwards? > > Wouldn’t traffic on the ground appear to be going in reverse? > > Wouldn’t the sun appear to be going across the sky in the wrong direction? Yes but they fix it with CGI ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/84 "2011-01-04T00:35:47Z")
It is true that if you jump on an airplane you will die. It is also true that if you do not jump on an airplane you will die. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/85 "2011-01-04T00:42:40Z")
Pilot’s quote: “There are only two bad things that can happen to you as a pilot, and one day one of them will. You can walk out to the airplane knowing it’s your last flight. Or, you can walk out to the airplane NOT knowing it’s your last flight.” ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/86 "2011-01-04T01:03:38Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > It catches up with you, does it? Relatively speaking… ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/87 "2011-01-04T01:11:52Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > Yes but they fix it with CGI People were flying coast to coast long before there was anything close to CGI. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/88 "2011-01-04T01:24:33Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > People were flying coast to coast long before there was anything close to CGI. The poor fools simply didn’t know any better. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/89 "2011-01-04T01:29:15Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > The poor fools simply didn’t know any better. Couldn’t that be the explanation for all of it? Why bother with reversed CGI films if the passengers are poor fools who don’t know any better? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/90 "2011-01-04T02:17:31Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > People were flying coast to coast long before there was anything close to CGI. But they all had jerky walking movements, and it was all in black and white. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/91 "2011-01-04T02:28:26Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > Relatively speaking… Well played, Sir. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/92 "2011-01-04T02:33:27Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > They just hop across the equator - the two hemispheres of the Earth rotate in opposite directions. I call bullsh\*t on this: I’ve crossed the Equator several times on a ship, and if the two hemispheres were rotating like that, there would be a line where the ocean would be travelling at 1,000 mph E to W on one side, and 1,000 mph W to E on the other. How would your average ocean-going ship cross that line? ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/93 "2011-01-04T02:37:04Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > I call bullsh\*t on this: I’ve crossed the Equator several times on a ship, and if the two hemispheres were rotating like that, there would be a line where the ocean would be travelling at 1,000 mph E to W on one side, and 1,000 mph W to E on the other. How would your average ocean-going ship cross that line? CGI. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/94 "2011-01-04T02:40:28Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > People were flying coast to coast long before there was anything close to CGI. A wizard did it. ---
**Author:** ![fighting\_ignorant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ac8455/32.png) [@fighting\_ignorant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fighting_ignorant)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/95 "2011-01-04T03:26:50Z")
How on earth is this thread still in GQ? Or not on earth, as the case may be, but hovering above it apparently. Anyway, point being, um. I forget. Wizards. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/96 "2011-01-04T04:40:31Z")
Man, I learn so much reading these message boards. ---
**Author:** ![Fatwater\_Fewl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4491bb/32.png) [@Fatwater\_Fewl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fatwater_Fewl)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/97 "2011-01-04T05:52:44Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > I call bullsh\*t on this: I’ve crossed the Equator several times on a ship, and if the two hemispheres were rotating like that, there would be a line where the ocean would be travelling at 1,000 mph E to W on one side, and 1,000 mph W to E on the other. How would your average ocean-going ship cross that line? Simple. The air molecules on each side of the seam are configured to act as inverse teleport screens, so that the ship and everything in it reappear on the other side as mirror images of themselves. Since the particles that constitute the ship are reversed, its momentum is also reversed. The technology for the screens was discovered _around_ 1971, and is also simple in execution, consisting as it does of aiming two world-girdling arrays of 1920s style death rays at each other. An as yet unexplained but pleasant effect is a sudden abundance of pie when a ship crosses the equator and then returns on the same day. It is theorized (but not yet proven) that the screens and the area between them were were torn out of Time the second the arrays were powered up and therefore must be considered eternal. If true, this might explain the mundane – how seafarers crossed the equator before the arrays were fired – and give us hope of understanding the sublime … it may be the long looked for First Cause. ---
**Author:** ![Kilmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@Kilmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilmore)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/98 "2011-01-04T06:21:00Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > OK, so let’s get back to the subject of acceleration. Airplanes do not accelerate slowly. They put on these ginormous boosts of power, and then WHHOOOSH!! they’re off. So, If I were to jump just as the pilot pulled the throttle back: would the air pressure within the cabin carry me along? Or would I land a few seats back from where I jumped? I second this question! ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/99 "2011-01-04T06:38:02Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > OK, so let’s get back to the subject of acceleration. Airplanes do not accelerate slowly. They put on these ginormous boosts of power, and then WHHOOOSH!! they’re off. So, If I were to jump just as the pilot pulled the throttle back: would the air pressure within the cabin carry me along? Or would I land a few seats back from where I jumped? You would be introduced to the back of the plane. If you left your seat at 150 mph and the plane is accelerating then the difference in the speed before you land is how fast you move back. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157/100 "2011-01-04T08:48:44Z")
Just want to know if could avoid being smashed into the back wall if I were on a treadmill on the plane? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-if-you-jump-on-an-airplane-youll-die/566157.md?page=6)