Soldato
Thanks.
Is this actually possible?
Perhaps our resident airplane pilots can confirm this, because it seems very strange to me that it could be so easy.
'Contact lost' with Malaysia Airlines plane
- Thread starter Domo
- Start date
Is this actually possible?
Soldato
I am genuinely shocked that there is manual control over that.
Soldato
Would a loss of cabin pressure not drop the masks?
Or is there a manual shut off for that as well..
Or is there a manual shut off for that as well..
Soldato
According to the reddit fictional story, the masks would drop but only have a 15 minute oxygen supply.
...Im still gobsmacked that the cockpit crew have the ability to oxygen starve the main cabin. Why in the hell would it be designed that way is beyond me.
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Yes - the masks should automatically deploy once the altitude in the cabin exceeds 14000ft. It might be possible to disable this function by pulling a circuit breaker in the cockpit but I'm not really sure - its not something I've ever considered needing to know how to do.
Soldato
I've not read the reddit thread tbh..
As for shutting off oxygen in the cabin, perhaps for some last ditch fire suppression? Passengers mask up and you vent the cabin.
Soldato
Might I suggest not checking it the next time you are in a plane, I suspect trying to explain why to the boss would probably raise some eyebrows...
Associate
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- 19 May 2010
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Pressurisation failure - no point in having all the systems operated by computer without a backup in case you have a sensor or valve failure for instance.
Masks will drop if the cabin altitude drops below 10,000 ft or so. Pilots also have a limited supply of oxygen, and the cockpit is connected to the main cabin anyway, so if the air pressure drops there then it does for the pilots too.
Also, if you go back to the days of earlier aircraft without computers, this was all controlled manually by the Flight Engineer anyway, operating the outflow valves against the airflow from the engines to increase or decrease the cabin altitude at a comfortable rate.
Because ultimately, whenever you board a plane, you place your life in the hands of the professional pilots in control of the aircraft.
There are innumerable ways they could intentionally or otherwise kill everyone on board. If a pilot goes bad...well you're **** out of luck and no amount of safeguarding is going to stop bad things happening. Fortunately it very, very rarely happens.
It designed so that in event of failure of both the automatic and standby pressurisation systems the crew can try to keep the cabin pressurised using direct control of the valve that controls the pressure. (I've had to do it a couple of times and its a right pain in the ****)
Also - as the aircraft descends the valve tends to open to depressurise the aircraft, upon landing it should drive fully open. If you were planning to land on water however you would want to manually close the value just prior to touchdown to stop the aircraft flooding.
Indeed, and in the story he fully opens the valve to let in as much water as possible.
Now this is interesting, so the story does mention the landing gear. What good is setting that switch to override going to do?
It simply disables the warning systems (EGPWS - Enhanced ground proximity warning system). It's basically a system that calls out 'TOO LOW, TERRAIN' or 'TOO LOW, GEAR' if the aircraft thinks you are descending into the ground or too low without having the gear extended. With those two cases thats all the system does but it can provide a whole range of warnings and guidance if necessary in other situations.
To be honest the reddit thread is completely fictional with some fairly big problems in its narrative - its probably best not to read to much into it.
Soldato
I've heard that word used to describe the way the plane breaks up when planes hit the ground at very high speeds approaching mach 1, the way the impact destroys the plane etc.
lol