Why Don't Airlines Supply Parachutes To Passengers? - The Guardian

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RED TAPE, WHITE LIESWhy don't airlines supply parachutes to passengers?

  • THIS was a live issue during the second world war when small fighter aircraft, such as the Spitfire, were considered more valuable than the pilots who flew them. The argument ran along the lines of balancing the number of planes lost because their pilots baled out unnecessarily, against the shortage of trained pilots that would occur if they were not given the chance to escape. Today's airline passengers are not fighting for their country, so it would be bad business to save them in the event of an (most unlikely) enemy attack. There are plenty more willing and paying customers who know full well that 'in the unlikely event of a plane having to put down on water' they don't stand a chance of surviving the impact. Since it is during the take-off or landing manoeuvres that 98 per cent of all airline accidents occur, the odds of any passengers saving themselves by jumping out of the plane clutching parachutes are incredibly slim. It is much more pertinent to demand safety belts on trains and buses.

    Patrick C Graham, Cardiff.

  • IT IS MOST unlikely that a parachute will be of use if a passenger plane crashes. Even a plane-load of active military parachutists takes several minutes of reasonably steady flight to exit. Parachuting takes nerve, skill, and strength. One has to force oneself into a 150 mph slipstream, hold a posture that stops one tangling with the parachute as it opens, steer clear of one's fellows and land safely. I shudder to think what the casualty list would be if a typical group of passengers were to attempt their first descents in an emergency. The average man, woman or child in a Boeing would stand a better chance of survival riding the plane down.

    D Waterton, Wigan, Lancs.

  • AS IT takes several minutes to don a parachute, passengers would have to wear one throughout the flight - uncomfortable and impractical, especially on long-haul journeys. Accidental deployment of a canopy would have dire consequences, especially on the plane's stability if dragged out of an open door with the passenger still strapped in his/her seat. The G-forces of a crashing plane are immense. A plane needs to slow to about 70 mph otherwise a jumper could end up wrapped around the tail-plane. Also, the harness might damage or hinder the pneumatic escape chutes, if used in a ground emergency.

    Phil Edwards, (member of the British Parachute Association), Crewe, Cheshire.

  • SOME of the answers are slightly erroneous or incomplete. It is true that at times early in the war, we had a shortage of Spitfire and Hurricane pilots, but for many years before that, all our fighter pilots had parachutes - and as our pilots knew that Luftwaffe pilots had parachutes, the psychological effect of even seriously considering parachuteless Battle of Britain pilots would have been devastating. However, the concept of pilots baling out unnecessarily did influence both sides to withhold parachutes in the Great War, although towards its end some German pilots were given parachutes. As for airliners, an early reason for no parachutes was that the public would have considered the first airline to provide them for passengers to be using unsafe aircraft (otherwise, why supply parachutes?). Another strong reason was cost and weight, for a feasible system suggested before the war, when air navigation was less exact and engines less reliable, was for each passenger seat to include a parachute, each whole seat and passenger being dropped through the cabin floor, in sequence from the rear. But quite apart from the huge weight penalty, what if the sequencing mechanism accidentally operated while the airliner was just taking off? In any case, modern jetliners travel so fast even when in trouble, that most passengers would be killed just stepping outside, by the battering airflow.

    Len Clarke (ex-military and civil pilot), Uxbridge, Middx.

  • Yes, catering for passenger parachutes on a flight - especially long haul flights entered my mind just recently. After reading the comments, I realize the odds of such a thought. It seems I was not the only one that contemplated the possibility. However, I do hope scientists do come up with a similar escape device for crashing planes. The amount of innocent, and productive lives that are lost to these accidents is absurd...

    Syeda rizvi, Houston, Texas United States of America

  • I believe enough Aviation companies like Boeing-Airbus-BAE should develop parachute system that can be deployed for the Civilian Airliners Aircrafts. The deployment can take place once the Aircraft gets in trouble and there is slim chances of recovery. We have seen Airbus A380 like huge aircraft so why not develop something that can be accommodated into the Airframe hull later deployed by Pilots. I believe it won't take much of a space and it won't be that heavy system. It is time Engineers and Companies focus on safety as well rather then selling their products.

    Joe, Ontario Canada

  • The immense technological knowledge that has emerged in our time gives me huge confidence that a safe means of ejecting out of the airplane when it is certain the plane will go down. Often than not, all on board and airplane dies after a crash and this is frightening. Having read the unlikely chance of giving passengers parachute, an idea that once holds feasible in my mind, how about making the passenger sitting cubicle and ejectable and parachute enable section within the airframe. Like a group of 20 passenger in a sitting arrangement is placed in an ejectable frame, electronically goes off the airplane sensing mayday signals and deploys a parachute. In the movie "Airforce One", Harrison Ford acting US president in the movie was placed in a cubicles and ejected off the plane. How about this technology implemented in commercial airlines. In combat jet planes, the pilot eject off with his seat, deploys a parachute to land safely. A model of this kind is possible I believe.

    Ernest Aghimien, Lagos Nigerua

  • The immense technological knowledge that has emerged in our time gives me huge confidence that a safe means of ejecting out of the airplane when it is certain the plane will go down is conceiveable and more often than not, all on board an airplane will dies after a crash and this is frightening. Having read the unlikely chance of giving passengers individual parachutes, an idea that once holds feasible in my mind, how about making the passenger sitting cubicle an ejectable and parachute enable section within the airframe. Like a group of 20 passenger in a sitting arrangement is placed in an ejectable frame, electronically goes off the airplane airframe sensing mayday signals and deploys a parachute afterwards. In the movie "Airforce One", Harrison Ford acting US president in the movie was placed in a cubicles and ejected off the plane. How about this technology implemented in a larger dimension in  commercial airlines. In combat jet planes, the pilot eject off with his seat, deploys a parachute to land safely. A model of this kind is possible I believe. The loss on airplane crashes is just alarming.

    Ernest Aghimien, Lagos Nigeria

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