Why don't passengers parachute to escape when a civil plane crashes?

Before designing passenger planes, parachutes were not considered for passengers, and even the crew did not have parachutes.

There have been many civil aircraft accidents throughout history, which have affected the hearts of hundreds of millions of people. Accordingly, many people cannot help but wonder why these passenger planes were not equipped with parachutes for passengers and crew? When a passenger plane crashes, people can save themselves by parachuting, is parachuting that difficult?

In the imagination of many travelers, umbrellas may be the fastest way to escape in emergency situations. However, according to international aviation safety organizations, umbrellas are considered an inappropriate escape device on civil flights.

In fact, skydiving is a much more complex and dangerous technique than people imagine .

The cruising altitude of a passenger plane is between 8,000m and 10,000m. At this altitude, if a passenger is inexperienced, does not wear a specialized parachute suit, and is not equipped with oxygen equipment for parachuting, then the chance of survival when parachuting out of the plane in the event of an accident is almost zero.

The most suitable height for skydiving is from 80 meters to 3,000 meters , the minimum safe parachute opening height is about 500 meters , passengers without skydiving experience will have no way to estimate the height so parachute escape is impossible.

First, it is impossible to parachute from the passenger cabin because civil aircraft usually operate at an altitude of 10 km (the plane reaches this altitude or more after takeoff and maintains it throughout the journey), with an average speed of 910 km/h. If you make a jump, your body will either break apart or stick to the plane's shell.

During the Wenchuan earthquake in China in 2008, 15 Chinese paratroopers decided to parachute at an altitude of about 5,000m, creating a parachute jump miracle for paratroopers in this country.

The success of high altitude skydiving is determined by many factors , ordinary people without professional training cannot complete high altitude skydiving. At an altitude of nearly 10,000m, the air is thin, the oxygen content is extremely low, and the temperature in some places drops to about minus 42 degrees Celsius. The cold and lack of oxygen in this environment can cause people to hypothermia and suffocate immediately.

Starting from an altitude of about 4.5 km, passengers need to be provided with oxygen because when the parachute opens, the plane will not be pressurized, the human body will be under great pressure. If the altitude is below that, if the plane has an accident, it will land very quickly.

Before jumping, the crew must find a suitable landing spot through gaps in dense clouds, then go to the hatch and jump decisively one by one, and open the parachute at the appropriate height by keeping the distance and time with the skydivers in front. These activities require years of accumulated skydiving experience.

If the distance between the front and back parachutes is too small and the time is too short, both can get entangled in each other's parachute lines and crash together. If the parachute is opened too early , the parachutist can lose heat and suffocate. If the parachute is opened too late, the parachutist's body can fall freely and hit the ground.

While skydiving, the skydiver also needs to judge the wind direction, operate the falling direction and speed of the parachute to descend, otherwise it is easy to fall directly into trees, on the sea, roads, high-voltage power lines and other dangers.

Even if it is possible to jump from such a height or lower, the mentality is also an important factor. Not all passengers are capable of skydiving independently . This requires professional training.

Landing and touching the ground also requires mastering the skills and precise movements . Instead of stretching your legs straight down to the ground, you have to bend over. When you touch the ground, you have to jump up strongly, bend forward and then bounce back, to absorb the force from the landing process.

Additionally, the process of a passenger plane crashing due to failure would happen very quickly, so there would be no way for untrained people to parachute out of the plane one by one.

Adding parachutes to civilian aircraft also costs more and increases the weight of the aircraft, which means more fuel is needed and flights will be more expensive.

In fact, there are more than one type of parachute, they are divided into many types with many specifications, mainly including life-saving parachute, parachute for parachutes, training parachute, sports parachute,.

In terms of shape, round is the most popular, this type of umbrella has low cost, the umbrella opening operation is relatively simple, relatively safe but is greatly affected by the wind, if the weather is good, this type of round umbrella is the most suitable.

After the holes in the circular umbrella are made, it becomes more stable and its performance is also improved.

Meanwhile, the stability of square and elliptical parachutes is relatively poor, requiring users to have strong parachuting ability, but this type of parachute can control the direction accurately, the impact when landing is also small, and is also a special parachute for fighter aircraft.

When a person panics, their actions become uncontrolled. It is likely that having to jump out of the plane will cause chaos and blockage at the plane's emergency exit, making it more difficult to handle the emergency situation.

Finally, if an ordinary person is not trained in parachuting, he will not be able to complete a parachute jump at a normal altitude, let alone a high-altitude parachute jump at an altitude of 8,000 meters to 1,000 meters, and this is also the reason why passenger planes are not equipped with parachutes.