Re:An airline that has made sure its airplanes won't disappear
by marcosdumay on Monday January 05, 2015 @09:37PM
(#8842629)
Well, sorry about the uninformative answer. I was in a rush...
Anyway, 6 minutes (not 16) is the time people are usually expected to still be alive in a plane after it gets on fire. Airports spend a lot to get cars on their area fast enough for rescue, there's simple no chance boats can get anywhere in the oceans that fast - when a plane falls on the water boats need days to get there. And all "the nearest boat" will do is catching fire together with the plane, you need well equipped boats with trained people.
Anyway, I'm having a hard time trying to imagine a scenario where airplane tracking fails, but people are still alive. I'm about to claim that's currently impossible, but that'd be just asking for a counterexample to happen and prove me wrong... When planes disappear, it's because they were either completely destroyed in air or hit the ocean at a huge speed.
Anyway, 6 minutes (not 16) is the time people are usually expected to still be alive in a plane after it gets on fire. Airports spend a lot to get cars on their area fast enough for rescue, there's simple no chance boats can get anywhere in the oceans that fast - when a plane falls on the water boats need days to get there. And all "the nearest boat" will do is catching fire together with the plane, you need well equipped boats with trained people.
Anyway, I'm having a hard time trying to imagine a scenario where airplane tracking fails, but people are still alive. I'm about to claim that's currently impossible, but that'd be just asking for a counterexample to happen and prove me wrong... When planes disappear, it's because they were either completely destroyed in air or hit the ocean at a huge speed.