How come they dont supply parachutes on commercial airliners??

Answer 1

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1) The pilot in command of the aircraft is responsible for ensuring that anybody on the aircraft with a parachute is capable of operating it safely. This is unnecessarly burdensome for commercial operations.

2) Parachutes are not something that just anyone could put on properly. Putting on a parachute improperly can cause serious injury or death.

3) Jumping from an airliner at crusing altitude requires supplimetal oxygen, which requires special training.

4) Jumping from ANY altitude requires special training for that matter. A normal ground school is 6 to 8 hours.

5) Parachutes are expensive. Mine cost 1200GPB (about 2500USD) and that was nearly 15 years ago. Supplying one for every passenger on an airplane would be prohibitive (especially with supplimetal oxygen).

6) Opening a door on a pressurized airplane is extremely dangerous (even at lower altitudes).

7) They don't make parachutes for children or pregnant women. Also people weighing over about 18 stone would need a special parachute.

8) Jumping over water requires even more training and special equipment.

9) Could you imagine the pandemonium? The plane fills with smoke or starts pitching and rolling severely and then the flight attendant demands your attention to show you how to put on a parachute. Chaos.

The only time that parachutes would actually be preferable is in a situation in which the aircraft is definately going to crash violently, but is currently under control and not filled with smoke or losing pressurization and shouldn't be expected to for some time.

I'd say that you would need a minimum of 30 minutes for a staff of flight attendants to get 200-300 people into rigs and ready to go out the door. That's a very low estimate.

The likelyhood of an aircraft being stable for that length of time, but also known to be doomed to violent failure during landing is too small to consider. In the end, it just isn't worth it.

Answer 2

hmm ! good question, form me because there are so many people in a commercial plane that there will be a shotage of parachutes

Answer 3

Generally, the aircraft is flying way too fast for parachutes to be used. On a crash descent, the speed is too rapid. The plane begins to break apart you think you'll be okay in a parachute?

Also altitude is a factor. Aircraft like that fly way too high and the lack of oxygen and pressure would kill you.

Also the way the doors are on most aircraft. If slow and low enough, you could go out the back i guess but from the side there is too much of a risk of hitting an engine, wing, or the tail of the plane. Things just wouldn't go well. :)

Answer 4

They'd be useless excess weight. You'd have to remove half of the seats to make room for them. Then there's the issue of training people to use them. Imagine having to go to jump school and be freefall qualified just to fly off to visit grandma for the weekend. And now how about the time to get everyone chuted up before boarding -- figure you'd need to show up 5 hours before your flight. Now imagine a 6 hour flight with one of those damn things strapped to your bod. Going to the crapper would be an adventure! And how about the rube who pulls his ripcord prematurely? Dumb idea!

Most accidents occur during the transition during takeoff and landing where there isn't enough altitude to get out anyway. Just as importantly, once the aircraft is pressurized there's no way to open the doors anyway. So now you have a half-full aircraft going down with 150 parachutes that served no usefull purpose what so ever.

Answer 5

Can you imagine a plane full of passengers in a panic and strugling to put on parachutes? Not to mention the panic to get to the door trampling people too chicken to jump. You have to agree it just would not work.

Answer 6

Two basic reasons. First and foremost is the cost. People who just walked on an airplane and were handed a parachute, probably wouldn't know how to operate it, and the loss of parachutes by the airlines would be greater than the cost effectiveness of not providing them. The other reason, is that all commercial aircraft are pressurized. while a plane was in flight, you couldn't open the door if you wanted to, and by the time the pressure was equalized, to open the door, you probably would be able to jump out anyway.

Answer 7

You have to be trained to use a parachute properly. Most people don't have that training. Plus, airplane crashes are really rare, compared to how many flights there actually are, so they'd go unused.

Answer 8

Everybody who answered has some good ideas but one is missing. Airlines want us to think that flying with them is SAFE. I don't know about you but if the really cute flight attendant hands me a parachute, the first thing in my mind is going to be "Am I going to need this?". That would not give me a warm fuzzy feeling of safety.
That's also why unlike military aircraft, all the plumbing, cables, wiring etc., is hidden. They want you to think that there's no more to flying than taking a bus ride. I'm not suggesting a conspiracy of some sort, its just good for business.

Answer 9

Aircraft are built with several back-up systems incase of failures. And yes failures happen all the time on aircraft that is why there are back-up systems. So the risk factor is so low for ever needing a parachute. Because of the low risk factor parachutes are not standard equipment.

Answer 10

most of the answers above are correct. But their remains a fact that there have been quite a few jump planes that have crashed full of trained parachute jumpers none of which have survived. You would need an ejection seat and ever one would have to go off at once or the person 1sec behind would be roasted alive from the other rocket. No thanks I'll stick with the odds as they are.

Answer 11

A FAR better investment would be passenger airbags.

The majority of injuries from plane accidents occur during takeoff and landing. If you were to use a parachute during a takeoff or landing problem (assuming you could get it on fast enough) you'd probably hit the ground before the parachute even opened.

Of course, the best business decision would be to cram as many seats in the plan as possible. Installing airbags would limit that.

Answer 12

First, it takes a while to don a parachute properly. Then, you'd need a little bit of training to have much of a chance of doing it right. Next, the pilot would have to drop altitude and slow the aircraft (in other words, be in very good control of the aircraft). Finally, everyone would have to calmly file out of the plane at a measured pace to ensure chutes wouldn't get tangled.

On top of all of that, the added weight and storage requirements of carrying a parachute for each and every seat on the plane would restrict its weight allowance, reducing either the number of seats (and, therefore, revenue) or luggage capacity (and, therefore, passenger satisfaction).

Answer 13

Plane----35,000 feet in the air---
Passengers equipped with parachutes
Plane blows up---most survive initial explosion
ALL DIE seconds after due to FREEZING TO DEATH.

Answer 14

You think the average idiot could figure out how to use one anyway? You're traveling too high/fast to really use one in that type of plane.