How many lives have life-jackets on planes saved?
So while there are lots of statistics about how many plane crashes there are and how safe air travel is, I would like to know how many lives have ever been saved by those yellow life jackets? I'll bet it's very few.
Answers:
Enough to justify it, the Potomac river crash in 1982 springs to mind where the aircraft crashed on takeoff and into the river. If an aircraft can make a controlled landing on to water in some of the cases the aircraft does remain intact.
You will find that most safety equipment is there due to some accident in the past where the result was to put a piece of safety equipment on board. Seats are now made with fire resistant material due to the Manchester aircraft fire in the early 90's. where many people died due to toxic fumes Seats now have to meet very stringent load requirements due to a number of accidents where the crash was survivable but the seats failed and everyone was crushed to death at the front of the airplane. No smoking and smoke detectors in the toilets due to the loss of a couple of airplanes because of fire, and of course the reinforced bulletproof cockpit doors due to recent events.
The aviation safety industry is more reactive than proactive, I work in it, and it can be frustrating.
Just after I answered I did a quick search, here is another example where they are useful, not everyone survived, but if you can save one it is worth it http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/0.
And here is another
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/1.
Hell, I didn't even know there were life jackets on the plane!
How hacked off would you be if your plane crashed, be it over water or not and they -or any other safety implement - weren't there?!?
The only purpose they serve is as bobbers so the sharks can find you once you are in the water.
lifejackets on planes is useless. If you're 13,000 ft up in the air and you fall from that distance into the water you'll hit the water and die instantly.
26482
Cause that plane doesn't just go over land.
to my (limited knowledge i admit) life jackets have saved a grand total of 0 lives. Planes rarely do well landing on water.
add: in fact i heard that they merely serve as a way to make body recovery easier.
hmmmm..how true, even if you did survive the crash landing and getting out of the plane and into the water with your yellow life saver, how long would you survive being in the icy ocean water? Minutes perhaps? Not long enough for someone to come in and rescue you. Even if it wasn't icy water, warmer water tends to have more sharks in it.
all I know ..is your NOT supposed to inflate until you hit the water.you MUST keep the life jacket deflated so you can swim out of your chair, swim out of the plane.then and ONLY then do you inflate.
If you inflate before you have crash landed in the sea..your life jacket will shove you to the celling of the plane and make it very difficult to escape wreckage under water.
learnt that of air crash investigation on discovery
if they've only saved one life, they are worth it
I think if the plane is gonna crash you would be in such a panic the yellow jacket would be the last thing you would reach for.I believe you are dead before the plane touches ground anyway, lack of air etc; guess I will stay away from them planes
26483
Dont beleive any lives have ever been saved but in theory landing on water is a better option and probably a pilot would make for the sea in the event of an emergency.
However once an Aircraft reaches its cruise Fuel permitting it would travel in safety indefinatly because of the ideal conditions..Dont worry..Flying is ultra safe
how many lives have life jackets saved, a lot of raf pilots during ww2 are here today because of them, and thats why your not writing in german and have the freedom to ask silly questions.
Two things to consider: Most airplanes crash on either take off or landing and there are a lot of airports either on the water or that have approaches that take you over water.
So if I'm taking off from JFK and the pilot aborts the take off and puts us all in Jamaica Bay -yeah I want a life preserver.
Assuming that you were alive 2 minutes after the plane hit the water- I'm sure that a life preserver t would increase your chance of survival
I would guess that they have saved a fair number of military pilots who have crashed or ejected into the sea.
The only commercial flight that comes to mind is the Air Florida crash into the Potomac River. I can clearly remember on the news footage that one or two of the survivors had their life jackets on when pulled out.
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