Re:Plane crashes and other accidents
ChuckKuecker (ckuecker@mcs.net)
Wed, 15 Apr 1998 06:53:49 -0500 (CDT)
At 23:47 4/14/98 -0700, you wrote:
>As people's lifespans slowly but surely start to increase, the frequency
>of death from "unnatural causes" will also increase. Eventually, the
>chance of dying in a car accident or plane crash will become quite
>significant. Approximately one in 2 million flights go down. That means
>that if you make only 100 flights in your life, the chance is one in
>20,000 that one of the planes will go down - that's way "better" than
>the lottery. I saw a rather horrifying TV program recently called "Why
>planes go down". Human error is by far the major reason. Anyway, there
>was one crash in which one of the engines blew out, and the pilots had
>to land the plane as best they could. Even though they had 1/2 hour to
>get the plane down, something like 150 people died. A rather obvious
>question is "why do airlines not make parachutes available to
>passengers." Admitedly, there are some incidents where you have _no_
>time to save anybody, but sometimes there _is_ time to bail out. It may
>seem like a naive question, but I would appreciate people's opinions.
>
If the parachutes could be made sufficiently automatic so as to require NO
user interaction, and the aircraft could be equipped with a door openable in
the air (old 727's come to mind, and DC-8's?) this could become a reality.
If the airlines see the same public relations benefit to this that they see
in putting defibrillators on board, they might do it without governmental
prodding.
Some major problems occur to me - as an engineer, I always see problems with
things like this, but that starts me thinking of solutions...
The biggest problem I see is how do you control landing? Coming down in an
urban area, on power lines, in water, etc...
Personally, I wish I did have access to a 'chute when I fly. Trusting my
safety to a machine of unknown maintainance history, operated by persons of
whom I have no knowledge of their abilities and mindset, always makes me
quite nervous..
Chuck Kuecker