The recent emergency landing of Southwest Airlines flight 1380 at Philadelphia International Airport raised a serious concern for air travelers. One of the plane’s engines exploded shortly after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia. A piece of shrapnel struck the cabin of the aircraft and caused depressurization. The damage to the cabin caused one passenger fatal injuries when the pressure change sucked her partially through the damaged part of the aircraft cabin. Despite the best efforts of people on the plane to revive and stabilize her, the passenger succumbed to her injuries and died.
Most Americans are familiar with media depictions of people sucked out of damaged aircrafts in flight, but the possibility of this actually happening is remarkably small. The fatality aboard Southwest flight 1380 is the first recorded fatality aboard a U.S. air carrier since 2009. The last time a pressure change sucked a person out of a plane in flight was in 1988 when an Aloha Airlines flight attendant died after a hole opened in the roof of the plane, sucking her out of the aircraft.
But how does this happen? Read below to find out.
How Are People Sucked Out of Planes?
Airlines pressurize airplane cabins to match the air pressure at sea level, which is about 14.7 psi (pounds per square inch). The higher you travel above sea level, the lower the air pressure drops. In flight, the air surrounding a plane in flight is only about 4 psi. This may seem like an insignificant difference, but it is actually a drastic change in pressure. When a hole opens in a plane at this altitude, the pressure inside the cabin reacts with the lower pressure outside. This creates a vacuum effect that reduces the air pressure inside the plane as the lower pressure outside essentially sucks the air out of the plane.
When a hole opens in an airplane or a window ruptures, the different air pressure levels attempt to equalize, and this translates to tremendous pressure that has enough force to rip a passenger out of a seat. When a hole opens in an aircraft, this can translate to as much as 600 pounds of force acting on each window of the aircraft. If a window breaks, then there will be 600 pounds of force acting on the passengers closest to the broken windows.
Is It Safer to Fly That to Drive?
This recent story about the Southwest flight is jarring and may scare some air travelers, but it’s important to maintain some perspective concerning the odds of actually experiencing such an event. In 2015 alone, there were only 27 total accidents with zero fatalities, according to data from the National Transportation Safety Board. Of those 27 accidents, .155 occurred for every 100,000 hours of flight. This translates to an average chance of 1 in 9,821 of suffering a fatal injury from an airplane accident. Compared with the 1 in 114 of dying in a car accident on any given day, Americans have little reason to be afraid of flying if they are willing to get behind the wheel of a car.
While car accidents happen every day in every state, the vast majority of vehicle accidents cause very little to moderate damage and injuries. This is likely why Americans generally assume car travel to be safer than air travel. In contrast, an airplane crash though rare and is generally a catastrophic event that can cause multiple fatalities in the airplane as well as on the ground below. Essentially, car accidents happen far more often but typically result in less damage than airplane crashes. Of course, airplane crashes cause far more damage when they do happen. In light of the recent fatality aboard flight 1380, Southwest Airlines has committed to more thorough inspection of their fleet for additional safety using ultrasonic inspection tools.
If you were recently injured on an aircraft, contact Ben Bronston and his team to see if you have a case. Our Houston personal injury lawyers are standing by to help you in every way we can.
