What do you do if an airplane falls in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean?

Show all answers

Tim

If the plane "falls" as you put it, you would die, instantly. Cast Away was a movie. In 1996, there was an Alaska Airlines MD-80 that "fell" out of the sky. It was going faster than the speed of sound when it hit the water. It disintegrated into paper shreds.

If the plane "landed" like that Hudson River plane in January, and you all managed to evacuate, most people would die due to starvation or thirst. It would take about a day to get rescue boats to the "middle" of the ocean to resuce anyone. Again, that was a very rare landing. The middle of the ocean has huge swells with the waves which would cause a plane to shred into pieces again.

Captain Art Griego

I've thought about this a lot. Passengers probably don't know airline captains have special life rafts stocked with canned goods, bottled water, GPS locator devices, and flares. If your flight to France happens to do a Greg Lougainis and plummet into the Atlantic, just try to find the Captain's life raft and BEG him to allow you on board.

CAUTION: The airline captain has the right to make you his personal slave/crew member subordinate to his authority if you agree to come on board. Common emergency duties may include (but are certainly not limited to) giving him shoulder massages, bailing out the raft, serving him Dennison's Chile (usually found aboard the Class IV Captain's Life Raft) and /or making you row back to civilization.

GOD bless you-

Captain Art Griego

HEMP

Will you are certainly not going to survive with all these negative vibes!

I can't believe all the wet blankets! I'm sure you already know that Cast Away was a movie. Certainly, you might have to contend with freezing water and sharks, but if you hit the water at the speed of sound, you are likely to scare most of the sharks away. And all the burning jet fuel should warm up the water a bit. There is always a bright side to these things!

Of course, you should ask yourself first off, which is worse, crashing in the Atlantic or making it to France (kidding!).

That settled, it is always better to be prepared. So you want to get a seat near the wing, perhaps one seat removed from the exit door. Try to get your hands on one of the Coast Guard's insulated rescue suit's with GPS and water bottle and wear it under your clothes- to be less conspicuous. Otherwise, passengers may get the impression you know something they don't.

I have it on good authority (from a guy that has read just about every issue of Popular Science) that if the plane should breakup at 50,000 feet, maybe the wing part would break off like a maple seed and gently pinwheel to the ground. Just in case, make sure to grab onto the wing when the plane explodes!

Hint: Get two of those suction cups they sell to make bathroom shelves. You can use them to hold onto the wing while your pinwheeling. And don't worry about the air temperature. Remember you have on an insulated suit!

Once you hit the water, don't be content to stay there! Look for icebergs. If you are lucky, there should be a large enough one to make an igloo until you are rescued!

Good luck ! (but I don't think you will need it) :-)

aflumpire

1) You would not survive a crash into the Atlantic Ocean

2) If you somehow did, you would die of Hypothermia, or get taken by Sharks

3) That was a crash into the Hudson River, if it was the ocean, they would be dead as they would not be rescued so fast

4) Castaway is a MOVIE!

Emma!!!

Oh, please.
I've been to France twice, and I've been over the Atlantic (and Pacific) ocean about a million times. I'm still alive. Big whoop.
If you fell into the water, you'd die. But you won't. So don't worry.
Cast Away is a movie. Anything can happen in Hollywood.

Dan

Worry is the most counter-productive thing in existence today. There is simply no need to worry about things you cannot help.

The odds of you being involved in any sort of plane crash are approximately the same as you being hit on the head with a fish dropped by an eagle. Now tell me, when was the last time you even SAW an eagle?

If you want to go to France, then go. Overcome your fear and go!

Regards,
Dan

kent_shakespear

you place your head between your legs... and kiss your @r$e goodbye.

airplanes can be scarey because we have no sense of control. But in reality, they are far safer than cars, where we have the illusion of control. Airplane pilots are trained for years, far more than any car driver.

falling onto land or sea from 7 miles up is generally deadly no matter where you land... but it happens so infrequently it's irrelevant. Your odds of a car crash are thousands of times higher.

travelmaster

first off the plane is not going to crash into the ocean
there are millions of flights daily which fly over the ocean
and all those flights made safely

also note many of those flights do not even fly over the ocean in the first
place they fly over the north pole([you can waye to Santa Claus :)] and Greenland and Iceland
so those planes cant crash into the ocean because they will flying
over land!
most flights fly in a great circle route not directly over the ocean
and the crew are highly trained to deal with emergency

Melissa

Cast away is a movie. Made in Hollywood. =) I heard that falling into the ocean at a high altitude is like falling into cement. Ever do a belly flop into a pool? Yea. Hurts.

You hear about planes falling out of the sky more often than you hear about a safe flight and safe flights are much, much more common.

Am_I_Bluffin'??

It wouldn't matter if it was land or sea..........you'd be dead anyway.

Melissa

If there is a controlled landing/crash in the ocean, chances are still slim that there would be many survivors. What happened on the Hudson River was a miracle - they don't even train pilots to make those types of landings, and it would be much more difficult to do it in a choppy ocean. And Cast Away was a movie - that's why he survived. Surviving a crash like that would be rare. If the plane just "fell" out of the sky, without any control, it would be in a million pieces when it hit, whether it be land or water.

In any case, you'd have to float amongst the debris or on the emergency slides/rafts and hope for a quick rescue.

The odds of such a crash occurring are very slim though. And actually, many airlines take a route to Europe that follows the coast of North America, and cross the far North Atlantic, which means that the plane is over or near land for a large part of the flight. A crash would still be catastrophic, but maybe that makes you feel better....

Ryan

sorry but u die either right away or later on from sharks

Demi Lovato

I wll not get scare becoz its falling in water . I know swimming , even if u dont know how to swim then they give a life jacket and Flight Attendants are der.You are right every1 cannt survive like last time. but enjoy it.

cumbrian traveller

Swim or sink.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: