Why Are There No Parachutes?

As an aviation student, I for one have heard, and had countless debates about this very subject. A few stubborn minded people, my younger brother inclusive, would still not understand why modern passenger airliners cannot afford (in terms of weight) to equip the aircraft cabins with adequate number of parachutes should in case there ever be the need to evacuate as early as possible, during an emergency. Just think about how long it will take for 400 not forgetting  minors and the aged to courageously and boldly jump off a moving  object  at a height of about 34000ft and a temperature of approximately -47degrees Celsius and we haven’t even come to the direction of the wind blowing at a couple of terror- stricken amateur paratroopers! After a heated discussion, I was still unable to convince him after providing a myriad of reasons why it couldn’t be so. I sought out to uncover the facts, and below are my findings;

 Dropping 80 paratroopers from a transport aircraft requires the highest levels of courage, discipline and a lengthy period of basic training. Attaching the drop rope alone takes a few minutes and requires a lot of practice and care. It simply would not be possible to organize 300 or 400 untrained passengers to jump out of an airplane travelling at 400km/h at an altitude of 30000ft.

 Even if the doors could be opened, the passengers jumping out would smash into the wings or the tail fins.

 Parachutes can only be opened at 4920ft at the earliest. Given the inexperience of passengers, each parachute would have to have an automatic opening device, and for a jump at great altitude also an oxygen tank and an altimeter, all of which would have to be set up and put on.

 Each passenger would also need to have a helmet, to avoid injuries inflicted by uncoordinated jumps made by other passengers.

 The evacuation would also have to be operable at night.

 Should a passenger land in water, most of the parachute would land on their heads, suffocating .The passengers would have to remove the harness and climb out from underneath it without getting caught up in the lines. The lifejacket, which would have to be put underneath the parachute-not easy when in a panic-could then be inflated.

 During a storm or in high winds, the untrained parachutist would be dragged along the ground upon landing.

 In built-up areas, there is the danger that the canopy could collapse so that the person would fall the last 65ft to the ground at full speed.

 Evacuating 300 or more passengers from a passenger plane will take much longer than evacuating trained paratroopers from a slow flying transport plane. A passenger plane flies at just under the speed of sound, meaning that, its “drop zone” for could be as large as 300km.

 Over 90% of all accidents happen either on takeoff or landing  and with no or very little warning. Only in the case of a bomb or rocket fire could a parachute possibly save any of the passengers. In both the Lockerbie and Sakhalin crashes, passengers lost consciousness in seconds because of the drop in cabin pressure.

 In August 2001,an air Transat A310 suffered a fuel leak at high altitude over the Atlantic and had to glide for 20 minutes with no power at an altitude of 19700ft on to the Azores. This was one of the rare times when an orderly air evacuation could have taken place. Even so, it seems highly unlikely that 306 people would have been able to exit the plane promptly and get o the ground unhurt. The plane made an emergency landing at Lajes Airbase on the Island of Terceira and came to a halt undamaged.

 As there would not be enough room in the plane to don the extra 25kg of special equipment, the passengers who had just negotiated check-in, passport control, and security checks would then have to put on thermal suits, lifejackets, parachutes and oxygen tanks in the terminal before trudging out to the plane.

Reference
The Complete Book of Flight

Follow @ReneeGeraldo