Well, my understanding of the impact (which can be verified[?] by jumping off a high dive into
a swimming pool) is that an air bubble is dragged underwater with you. I don’t know if that
air bubble (if you assume you properly break the water and don’t suffer a large instantaneous
decceleration) will protect your vitals or not. I did read the danger of water going up the anus
and/or vagina tho-again dunno if the water bubble will protect you there or not.
Thank you, I really enjoyed reading those replies.
I’m glad I won’t feel much pain if I’m ever unfortunate enough to experience such an event.
Like someone selse mentioned here, I think it really would be a horrific last 30 seconds (or however long it takes) while the plane is spiraling down and your waiting for the impact.
Regards
Gus
Well, if you’ve ever seen a movie called Battle Beyond the Stars, a cheesy but entertaining remake of The Magnificent Seven / The Seven Samurai, you might remember a scene where George Peppard’s spaceship is critically damaged and he’s plunging out of orbit. He recognizes his fate, puts his feet up, and starts playing his beloved harmonica. Surely a case worth emulating.
Somewhere I read that at least one of the deceased at Lockerbie may have survived if only they’d found him in time. Imagine that. (Or don’t, if you don’t care to. Personally, at the moment I’m on a cruise ship and the lifeboat drill gave me serious heebie jeebies, addicted as I am to books about disasters at sea. Don’t know why - they give me terrible nightmares.)
If your plane is above about 15,000 feet, you wouldn’t remain conscious for more than a few seconds.
Also, hitting water from a height, is no different than hitting concrete.
Tease.
Sure you would. Time of useful consciousness at 18000 feet is 20 to 30 minutes. Even at 28000 feet you would have 2.5 to 3 minutes. That’s plenty of time to fall to thicker air.
I’d be shocked if that were true. The atmospheric pressure at 15,000 feet is around 430 mm Hg, and leads to hemoglobin saturation levels of 80% or so. Sure, I wouldn’t hang around for a long time at that altitude, and doing hard physical labor or demanding mental tasks will be difficult, but people have climbed Everest without supplemental oxygen, and that’s twice as high. If you only stayed conscious for 30 seconds or so you’d be well below the altitude where oxygen is required.
Given the adrenal rush and hyperventilation that can be expected from a person going What the fuck?! The plane’s exploding! AAAAAAAHHH! I’d guess that sort-of counts as physical labour.
Here is a very good article explaining why that isn’t true.
Here is a more scholarly article
Also, being exposed to a temperature of -40°F in street clothes would cause rapid hypothermia, which would contribute to poor blood flow to the brain.
That article does no such thing.
Your claim is:
While the truth is:
Posted too soon…
I fail to see how the time of useful consciousness according to the USAF being 20 to 30 minutes at 18000 feet reconciles with you saying that one would only have seconds above 15000.
People have survived free-fall from extended altitudes, but none of them landed on water. That is like, as noted above, like landing on concrete. The altitude record-holder, IIRC, was a Russian pilot who bailed out at @27000ft. and landed on the side of a mountain covered with a couple hundred feet of snow. The snow gave him a cushioned(?) landing, and since he hit at an acute angle to the slope, he slid down the mountain to a stop. Broke a few bones, but he lived.
I apologize. I mistyped and kept reading “15000” as “25000” Since I was sure that was what I’d originally typed.
I just read my error in your last post. I think I’ll go back to bad now.
Sorry :smack:
The book “Stiff,” by Mary Roach, has an entire (and entertaining, in a sick sort of way) chapter on plane crashes and their effects on the human body.
The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky also has a harrowing description of what the victims of Pan Am 103 went through when their plane exploded over Scotland.
I dug out an old bookmark: The Free Fall Research Page, there are stories that would make Mr. Ripley´s jaw drop.
Water isn’t exactly like concrete, in that it is possible to break the surface tension (try doing
that into a sidewalk). Wikipedia article on Golden Gate bridge suicides:
“Those who do survive always strike the water feet first and most suffer multiple internal
injuries and broken bones.”
That’s at ~75 MPH, not terminal velocity, BTW. I still contend it is possible if you know what
you’re doing (and get a little lucky).
You mean like Alaska Air 261?
In the ongoing battle between tubes of aluminum going hundreds of miles an hour, and the earth. The earth has yet to lose.