I don’t know about you, but I fly a lot and I always have these emergency fantasy scenarios in my head – not the “mile high club” kind. The kind where something goes wrong, horribly wrong on the plane and I have to save myself. The kind where I break out the emergency miniskirt and go-go boots and do something superhuman and impossible and kill all the motherfucking snakes, just like in the movies. Don’t pretend you don’t know exactly what I’m talking about.
The recent incident where a Southwest plane had a hole suddenly crack open in its ceiling during flight scared the crap out of everyone that flies. Period. Especially those of us who had just come back from SxSW 2011 on Southwest Airlines – and we had been delayed six hours due to a technical problem. I am trying to not think about this. But the plane with the hole in it – didn’t you see the story and think about what you would do to survive, if it happened to you?
Well, according to a new article on Discovery News, when there is a hole in a plane that can suck you out of it, you are a snowball in hell and you melt really fucking fast. In fact, the article is rather gruesome, as it goes into detail describing what actually happens when there is a hole in a cabin at altitude, and what happens if you end up outside the plane in that event. Nevermind the fact that you don’t have a parachute. Snip:
For passengers on Southwest flight 812, the consequences were far milder: Soon after its takeoff from Phoenix, the plane made an emergency landing, and everyone was fine.
But people have been hurled through holes in cruising airplanes before. And that raises an important, if gruesome question: What would happen to you if you were sucked into the atmosphere at 30,000 feet?
The prognosis, experts say, would not be good. [Link]