Mid-air panic as plane plunges 26,000 feet

Not sure of this statement:
The French officials said the plane lost 26,200 feet of altitude in
five minutes before the landing, which the pilot requested.

I assume the pilot "request" refers to clearance to drop below 10,000
feet which sounds like more of a controlled descent and not a plunge,
so to speak.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26401559?GT1=43001


Snip:
=========
PARIS - A Ryanair plane made an emergency landing in central France
after the cabin suddenly depressurized, French officials and the Irish
carrier said Tuesday. Up to 26 people were hospitalized.

The Boeing 737 was carrying 141 British and 27 Spanish passengers plus
six crew members from Bristol, England, to Gerona, Spain, before the
urgent landing in Limoges, officials in the Haute-Vienne region said.

The "depressurization incident" caused the oxygen masks on board to
deploy, a Ryanair statement said.

French officials said 26 people were hospitalized and suffered mostly
from chest, nose and ear pain. Ryanair's statement said 16 people
"complaining of ear ache" were taken to hospital.

In article ,
Duh_OZ wrote:
Not sure of this statement:
The French officials said the plane lost 26,200 feet of altitude in
five minutes before the landing, which the pilot requested.

That's what you'd expect. The oxygen masks don't work for very long,
so the plane needs to get down to an altitude where people can breathe
without them. Five thousand ft/min is fast but hardly uncontrolled.

R's,
John

Duh_OZ wrote:
Not sure of this statement:
The French officials said the plane lost 26,200 feet of altitude in
five minutes before the landing, which the pilot requested.

Plunged?????
It was a controlled descent.
Fast, but under the control of the flight crew.
"Plunged" makes it sound like the plane was on its way to crashing.

"mrtravel" wrote:
Duh_OZ wrote:
The French officials said the plane lost 26,200 feet of altitude in
five minutes before the landing, which the pilot requested.

It was a controlled descent.
Fast, but under the control of the flight crew.
"Plunged" makes it sound like the plane was on its way to crashing.
-------------------
Pilot humor:
Question... "How often does a plane crash?"
Answer is... "Once."
-------------------

mrtravel wrote in
:

"Plunged" makes it sound like the plane was on its way to crashing.

"Falling out of the sky" makes it sound more sensational.



--

In article ,
Pietro wrote:

mrtravel wrote in
:

"Plunged" makes it sound like the plane was on its way to crashing.

"Falling out of the sky" makes it sound more sensational.

And was probably closer to what the passengers felt like in real time
without the benefit of knowing the pilots did it on purpose.. or sitting
at home on a computer.

Duh_OZ writes:

Not sure of this statement:
The French officials said the plane lost 26,200 feet of altitude in
five minutes before the landing, which the pilot requested.

I assume the pilot "request" refers to clearance to drop below 10,000
feet which sounds like more of a controlled descent and not a plunge,
so to speak.

Quite so. Standard procedure after a loss of cabin pressure is to descend as
rapidly as possible to an altitude at which the passengers and crew can
breathe without extra oxygen. The descent is very fast but entirely safe and
controlled. And pilots practice it all the time in simulators, so they know
exactly what to do. It can be alarming for passengers, but they aren't in any
danger.

The ear and chest problems come from the brief exposure to the low pressure of
high altitudes, which makes ears pop and can cause problems like ruptured
eardrums in some people if they aren't able to equalize the pressure in their
ears rapidly.

mrtravel writes:

"Plunged" makes it sound like the plane was on its way to crashing.

I think that's exactly the intention of the media.

On Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:37:01 -0400, Kurt Ullman
wrote:

In article ,
Pietro wrote:

mrtravel wrote in
:

"Plunged" makes it sound like the plane was on its way to crashing.

"Falling out of the sky" makes it sound more sensational.

And was probably closer to what the passengers felt like in real time
without the benefit of knowing the pilots did it on purpose.. or sitting
at home on a computer.

I heard one of the passengers talking about his experience in a radio
interview this morning. His main complaint was that no announcement
was made, and no information was provided by the cabin crew on what
was going on until after the plane had landed. Also, although the
oxygen masks had dropped, no flow of oxygen was available through the
masks. As far as the passengers were concerned, they thought they were
all about to die.

In response, Michael O'Leary said that all crew members are required
by law to wear oxygen masks during such an emergency, and would
therefore not have been able to make any announcements on the PA
system.

Chris

Chris Blunt wrote:

Also, although the oxygen masks had dropped, no flow of oxygen was
available through the masks. As far as the passengers were concerned,
they thought they were all about to die.

Passengers often think the masks aren't working, because the little bag on
the mask typically doesn't inflate, and they think it should.

If they hadn't had oxygen, and the aircraft had truly depressurized at
cruising altitude, then they would have passed out in a matter of a minute
or so. The fact they didn't pass out, says that the masks were working
properly.