Effect on aeroplane of sudden depressurisation

"Michael Houghton" wrote in message
...
Howdy!

In article fXTUb.39070$L_4.14247@okepread01,
Steven Polczynski wrote:
Hi People

I am an A&P student and read what was posted on the de-pressurization
question. You guys did well in answering Guy's question.

Orval: said that it might fog up. Well, If your talking about a slow
decompression no it won't but if it is a sudden decompression it will fog
up
and there will be an immediate drop in temperature. And it if the plane
is
high enough it can kill instantly. Auto pilot will not necessarily do
anything. ex. last year a Learjet crashed after it ran out of fuel.
the
pressure release valve failed suddenly and the windows fooged over and
the
crew died. the auto pilot kept the plane on course until it ran out of
fuel
and crashed. No big chunks of fuselage suddenly ripped from the plane.

Ummm...not quite.

In fact, not close.

Instant death won't happen. Rapid incapacitation followed by death can
occur, but it takes some time. In the Payne Stewart incident (that you
probably allude to), the NTSB was unable to determine why the aircraft
lost cabin pressurization. Neither were they able to explain why the
crew were incapacitated by that loss of pressurization. The apparent
icing on the cockpit windows suggests a loss of bleed air (input) as
opposed to a "big leak". No evidence could be found to support any
specific conclusion about why the cabin lost pressure, nor any to permit
any inference about the rate of depressurization.

That conclusion is silly, considering the maintenance on the Lear done
before the flight.


I recommend http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/2000/AAB0001.pdf highly.