Re:How often do plane stowaways fall from the sky?
by jcoby on Friday September 14, 2012 @02:23PM
(#4523160)
Here in the US oxygen is required for the primary crew at over 14k cabin altitude. At 12.5-14k it's required after 30 minutes. No requirement under 12.5k.
I have flown at 12k for 1 hour and could tell that the air was much thinner and that going much higher would have started to impair.
I think that most commercial aircraft run somewhere between a 6k and 8k cabin altitude and as such a whole different set of rules apply. I don't know for sure - I'm only a private pilot.
We basically had to do menial tasks, like read a deck of cards, play "paddy-cake", etc., and then put our oxygen masks back on once we thought we were too impaired, while a technician was there with us.
However, I think the simulated altitude was 20k or 25k feet.
Needless to say there's a reason that O2 is (legally) required in unpressurized aircraft for anything over 10k feet.