What can aircraft companies do to make air travel safer? Why not have parachutes for all passengers on board?

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Paul McDonald

Parachutes for everyone would be foolish because:

1) few people actually have the training necessary to use a parachute (ask any skydiver)
2) The space and weight added would make commercial air travel impossible for most travelers.

First off, air travel is very safe and that's great. Can it be improved? Of course. But the bulk of the problems with air crashes have been either pilot error or a mechanical failure overlooked by the ground crew. So, I vote for even more training of our already capable flight and ground crews.

IceTrojan

Several problems with modern jetliners and parachutes:

1) First, you can't open the doors if the cabin is pressurized, as the doors swing inward, and the air inside is pushing outward.

2) Next, even if you could open the door and jump out, your body would probably be ripped to shreds by the plane's wake.

3) Finally, once you get out, at that altitude (over 30K ft) you'll either suffocate due to lack of oxygen or freeze to death (or both).

So just sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight.

northmiamibeach1975

Aircrafts are safe.
The problem is human error. Sorry to tell you, no solution for that.

Robbyo

AIrcraft companies cannot solely make air travel safer. But by making all emergency equipment standard - that is, no matter what airplane you're in you'll know how to use the equipment and safety features on board, they're definitely on the right track. Parachutes would never be useful, because if you survived a mid air impact at any point in flight of a 747 with the exception of at lift off from the ground, the speed would tear a human body apart. Further, even if one survived the inertia and were falling from 36000 feet, you would be rendered unconscious by the time the parachute deploys.

Investigate Truth

No ideas about your first question, but the second, to me, is obvious. Paratroopers receive lots of training in using parachutes, under normal controlled training conditions, even before they get into a plane. Can you imagine the impossible bedlam of people of all ages and condition, under total panic conditions, trying to put on parachutes and 'cooperate' to 'jump' at sufficient intervals to not get their parachutes tangeled up? With the numbers of passengers on planes now they likely couldn't all jump, even if they managed it, before the plane went down.

Warren D

Air travel has been made pretty safe.

I have read a lot of accident reports and cannot think of a single accident in which passengers could have used parachutes if they had been available.

clark6561

You cant jump out of a jet everyone would have to have ejection seats.......most accidents occour on takeoffs and landings anyways

mr T

parachutes are not much good below 1000ft and who is stupid enough to open a plane door above that, how much time would it take to put on a parachute and get all passengers out of the plane. do not take any notice of films where a gunshot breaks a window and a guy gets sucked out. it would rip the plane appart as would opening a door at that altitude, your chances of being killed on the road are 60% higher than in a plane. it was less before 9/11 70%
and i do not know where they got them figures from.

Kevin

You ask a common question, but a good one. Many have said you cannot open an aircraft door in flight. That isn't true. I'm a pilot who has opened small aircraft doors in 150 mile an hour cruise flight with one arm. You don't have to be strong to open the door. There are problems with giving passengers parachutes however.

1) Do you know how to use a parachute? I don't. I'm not willing to go through hours of training. A parachute isn't something you just jump and it opens. You have to know what speeds it will work properly at before you open at, how much you can be tumbling etc.

2) Parachutes aren't cheap. They also have to be repacked every 90 days to keep them from getting tangled in sotrage. Think about the cost to hiring packers and buying them in the rare case they could actually be used.

3) Most crashes occur too low for a parachute to work.

4) just because you jump out doesn't mean things are OK. You could jump wrong and smack the wing or tail and die instantly. World War w fighter pilots had to go so far as to fly slowly, crawl out on the wing and let go to not get killed by hitting the tail in their fall. Planes no set up for jumping are all deadly to try and jump out of.
Basically, if people were willing to undergo a lot of expensive training, spend an extra 70 dollars each way per flight and realize a jump is just as dangerous in that situation as letting the plane glide to a landing it could happen. As it is air travel is safe. MUCH safer than driving. I'd be more worried about making driving safer. We tend to freak about an airplane crashing. If you put aircraft crash deaths at the level of car crash deaths it would be something like two widebody jets crashing every week. As it is maybe one large jet crashes every year. Worry about the drive to the airport not the flight

Sir Readalot

There could be a huge parachute either for the entire plane or for an ejectable passenger cabin.

Also, the avionics could be designed so that the FAA can take control of the plane if it becomes hijacked.

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