airliner parachutes and guns in the cockpit

Why don't airliners have parachutes for
every passenger? Wouldn't the passengers
of the DC-10 that crashed in Sioux City, IA
have survived if they had been able to jump?

Hee hee!

Can't you just picture the passenger "bail-out!" light malfunctioning in
flight?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Ted Huffmire" wrote in message
...
Why don't airliners have parachutes for every passenger?

In most airline accidents, even the floating seat cushion doesn't do any
good. Parachutes would be a waste of money and useful load.

If guns are allowed in the cockpit, then isn't it possible for a dishonest
pilot
to hand the gun to someone else past the security checkpoint at the
airport?

See Tim's reply. By the way, allowing guns in the cockpit isn't what allows
the potential for abuse. There are numerous employees that work in and
around airliners who could get a gun onto an airliner, with or without
security checkpoints.

Airline security is there to make you feel better, nothing more. It's not
possible to prevent a determined individual or group of people from doing
harm, not while retaining anything remotely close to a reasonable quality of
life.

Pete

Peter Duniho wrote:



In most airline accidents, even the floating seat cushion doesn't do any
good. Parachutes would be a waste of money and useful load.


If you are on a transpacific or transatlantic flight,
and there is a loss of cabin pressure, how long
do the oxygen generators have to last? (the ones
attached to the masks that drop from the ceiling)

If they only have to last 30 minutes, the pilot would
have to descend to an altitude where there is enough
oxygen to breathe. But this would increase the fuel
burn of the engines. Would there be enough fuel to
get back to land?

Ted

From: Ted Huffmire


isn't it possible for a dishonest pilot
to hand the gun to someone else past the
security checkpoint at the airport?
Would the TSA have to verify that the gun
made it onto the plane before the aircraft
door is closed?

You want to stop hi-jackings? Put a kBar on the back of every airline seat
with a little sign---For passenger use during a hi-jack event. Mac (love to
bare arms)

"Mackfly" wrote in message
news:20030812212418.20867.00000544@mb-

You want to stop hi-jackings? Put a kBar on the back of every airline
seat
with a little sign---

Ka-Bar. And, it turns out, both my jeep and my van are safe from hijacking
based upon your prescribed preventative measures.


Combat knives....bad idea, but a seat cushion seems perfectly capable of
stopping the slash of, say, a box knife.

-c

Ted Huffmire wrote in message ...
Why don't airliners have parachutes for
every passenger? Wouldn't the passengers
of the DC-10 that crashed in Sioux City, IA
have survived if they had been able to jump?
Would the TSA give a passenger hell for
trying to bring his own as a carry on?

If guns are allowed in the cockpit, then
isn't it possible for a dishonest pilot
to hand the gun to someone else past the
security checkpoint at the airport?
Would the TSA have to verify that the gun
made it onto the plane before the aircraft
door is closed?

Ted

Good questions Ted. Some B-52's and tankers had such a bailout chute
in the cockpit. It hurt a lot of people who tried to use it.
They're just too fast to get out. Swept-wing jets are too difficult
to evac in the air when you're talking about hundreds of untrained
passengers. Heck, it's hard to just get them to follow the simple
command: "jump and sit" when the escape slides are deployed on the
ground. A fair percentage always smack their tailbones on the door
seal, break ankles, fall off the slide because they won't sit back.
The winds blows the slides around and makes things worse. A few always
try to use it like a rope because they're scared and that fouls up
everything for those behind them.

In theory, a dishonest cop could come to your house, shoot you, and
phoney up the paperwork to say it was self defense. But at some point
in your life, you're just going to have to trust someone with a gun
not to do that. Besides if a pilot wanted to kill you, he wouldn't
need a gun. Just push the stick over into the ground like that guy
did at JAL (DC-8), or the guy at SilkAir.
Don't worry about pilots with guns.

Ted

On several occasions I and others ferried fighters across the US and
rode commercial home. On occasion we tried to bring out chutes (in
duffle bags) into the cabin and store them in the overhead bins. We
were not permitted to do so and as I recall was told it would scare
the other passengers if I(we) did. Said there was some rule about no
chutes in cabin and they had to be checked in belly.

Don't know how we could have gotten out of bird if anything happened
and we had had access to our chutes.


Big John


Ted Huffmire wrote in message ...
Why don't airliners have parachutes for
every passenger? Wouldn't the passengers
of the DC-10 that crashed in Sioux City, IA
have survived if they had been able to jump?
Would the TSA give a passenger hell for
trying to bring his own as a carry on?

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