Tuesday, September 27, 2011

How exactly does one die in a plane crash?

People die all the time in plane crashes, but how? What is it that kills them. Shrapnel, impact, flames? It seems like a really ugly and potentially slower death to me.|||Most of the time it's the impact. Planes don't always glide slowly into the ground. Look at a few past accidents. A 727 literally took a nose-dive to the ground in San Diego after colliding with another plane. A DC-10 lost an engine on takeoff, turned on its side and plunged to the ground near Chicago's O'Hare. Wind shear caused an L-1011 to crash during landing in Dallas.





The recent crash in Buffalo was another example of a sudden and uncontrollable descent. Impacts like that kill people - there is literally no chance of survival.





The landing on the Hudson River was an exception. The pilot was able to maintain control and put it down safely in the water. He had time to assess the situation and act. And there was a suitable area available. That's not always the case.





Many times passengers survive an initial crash, only to be overcome by smoke and flames before they are able to escape.|||Probably on impact. The plane would be falling so fast, most people would probably be unconcious or in shock, when the plane hits after falling thousands of feet, the impact would be unimaginable whether they're gliding or not, when a huge object like a plane is falling, it's going to hit the ground HARD. There is pretty much to way to survive it. That house was completely gone. The plane would shatter, colapse, and be embedded in the ground. Seat belts would be useless. After that, jet fuel fires are basically impossible to extinguish so everything flammable would probably be burnt to ash in a matter of hours.|||Lots of wrong answers so far.





Most aircraft crashes have a survivable impact it's the ensuing fire that kills the passengers. They die either as a result of the flames themselves or from inhaling toxic fumes. Steps are being taken to remove the sources of the fumes but 100% success is unlikely as it will be necessary to retain things like the insulation in the wiring loom. Safer seats are becoming the norm.





One idea would be to have the seats facing to the rear of the aircraft thus preventing the passengers being thrown forward. The is the norm in RAF passenger aircraft. Not yet proven to help but only because they have yet to have a suitable accident.





Ian M|||People killed in airplane crashes (and most other types of vehicle accidents) are killed by impact or fire. Impacts that impose accelerations above a certain level will produce injuries, and if the injuries are severe enough, they will lead to death, either instantly or at some time after the accident. Impacts may be blunt injuries from collision with other parts of the cabin, or injuries from sharp objects or debris that are thrown through the cabin.





Because airplanes move quickly and stop suddenly when they reach the ground, people killed by impact are usually killed instantly. Those who survive the initial impact may survive the accident entirely and may even be able to walk away from the accident.





The other risk is fire. The main reason for complex evacuation protocols for airliner accidents is that the risk of fire is always present, and if passengers can be evacuated quickly, the risk of fire is less of a factor in causing fatalities.





The brace position during an accident helps diminish impact forces and improve survival rates. A rapid evacuation helps protect against fire.





A great many accidents are survivable. As long as the aircraft is under control when it reaches the ground, the odds of survival are high. If the aircraft is out of control, the odds of a severe impact and fire are much higher, and the chances of survival are lower.





In the recent Hudson River accident, the landing on the river was controlled, and so severe impact and fire were completely avoided, and passengers just stepped out of the aircraft to evacuate. In the Buffalo accident, the aircraft was most likely out of control, since it descended vertically enough to only damage a single house.





Aircraft do not drop from 40,000 feet, or from any altitude, as a general rule. The results for the Buffalo investigation are not in yet, but if it was due to ice, a change in configuration of the airplane for landing might have caused it to abruptly pitch down. At 40,000 feet, the pilots would have had plenty of time to regain control of the aircraft, but at 2000 feet and, say, 160 knots, they would have had only 7-10 seconds to find the problem, correct it, and regain control before reaching the ground.|||I don't think it's necessarily a slow death, if a plane just falls out of the sky and hits the ground, I imagine the impact and explosion instantly kills them. Even if there wasn't fire, the impact alone would kill them. It's like falling however high you are in the sky without a parachute and hitting the ground.|||I agree with the first guy, its the sudden impact after a "very rapid descent" (aka falling). The human body isn't able to withstand those type of forces. Necks/spinal cords will break, brain and heart will undergo a lot of stress and pressure, as well as many other things due to a sudden impact. As far as flames, if they are outside the cabin (which they usually are) they dont' enter in the cabin.|||there are MANY ways you can die in plane crashes you can die by flames the impact of the plane you can also die by the force of the plane to.|||The sudden decceleration kills you.





If that doesn't flying objects suddenly coming apart will maim you.





And then the fuel fire will burn you.





Good advice: don't be in a crash.|||It's the pressure from the sudden stop.





For instance you hit the ground at 400 mph and withing 2 sec you've gone from 400 to 0 mph. And if I am correct you should about 50 times your body weight crushing you.|||Well there's that whole "falling 40 thousand feet out of the sky" thing...





Though I imagine it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end...|||Newtons Laws.|||Permanently.

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