Why Don’t Planes Carry Parachutes? 

Because the last time a pilot brought a parachute onboard, he kamikazed the plane for a ridge wallet sponsorship

Way back in the day I was an instructor pilot and flew a T-38 (old supersonic trainer) to a civilian airport. The plane broke and I had to take a commercial flight home and was told to bring my parachute back with me. I got on the plane with my helmet, parachute, flight suit, etc. and the pilot looked at me and said "what, you don't trust me?"

As a former paratrooper don’t forget to jump behind the engines

Redundancy, 5:37 "every critial system is going to be at least double or triple redundant." Except of course MCAS, which Boeing decided could rely on a single sensor because it saved them money.

6:53 There's a really good reason the TSA lets you bring a parachute on the plane: us parachuters like to travel to other places to skydive sometimes.

3:42 and this is why i strap 50kg weights too myself whenever I am flying, get my moneys worth

If a plane is crashing it wouldn't be at 30000ft. Just sayin'

One other thing that he didn't mention: You can't open the exterior door at 35,000 feet. Unless the plane has already been depressurized and somehow you're not dead, those doors are designed to move inward before turning open. Due to the nature of air pressure being higher inside the plane than outside, this would make it impossible for a person to open the door at that high altitude while the plane is pressurized, because all that pressure is pushing out, thus making the door going inward not possible since there's very little pressure on the outside pushing in. Some crazy passengers have tried to open the emergency door mid-flight and all of them could not do it.

Don't forget Sam from jetlag the game is technically the same too

There's another reason: more people will die if planes have parachutes. That's because ticket prices would have to go up like 10% or thereabouts. If you study consumer behavior, a few percent of people will instead drive rather than fly at those higher prices. And guess what-- driving is thousands of times more hazardous than flying. So more people would die if planes had parachutes. Weird, but perfectly logical.

Oh no, sam found a way to talk about planes again

No mention of D. B. Cooper? He hijacked a 727 and managed to successfully parachute out of it, after instructing the pilot to fly at low altitude, low speed, and with an unpressurized cabin.

HAI: Everything on a plane is double or triple redundant Boeing: Hold my beer...

Skydiver here. TSA lets us bring parachutes on board because we like to travel with our rigs to different countries sometimes. It's usually better to check it, but it's very expensive gear so some people naturally do not want just leave in the airlines hands and hope for the best,

Thank you. I was about to parachute yesterday from my Boeing 777- 300ER Emirates flight from Dubai and this video managed to stop me from doing it or even thinking of doing it in the future. Thank you sir.

An autopilot becoming evil is something that never crossed my mind

I think it's funny that so many people think planes should have parachutes, but nobody wears a helmet in the car.

6:01 That's why Boeing connected the system that caused two 737 MAX planes to crash to a single angle of attack sensor that said they were in a stall!!!

Also, even mechanical failures that occur during cruise are likely survivable. If the plane is still controllable it can crash at low speed on a corn field or ditch in the Hudson river. If you're in the brace position with your seatbelt on, your odds of survival are better when you stay in your seat vs bailing out and getting sucked into a 3,000 RPM turbine, even if there is a 100% probability that the pilots can't make it to an airport.

Ok but WHY don’t the planes themselves have singular gigantic parachutes?

“I’m telling you, just attach a big parachute TO THE PLANE ITSELF! Is anyone listening to me?!” - Jack Handey

There's also the question of where you would land, having no survival, flotation, or communication equipment.

The big issue is that the time it would take for an airliner to have its passengers jump is far longer then a crippled airliner could stay stabilized for that without the airliner also being in good enough shape to go for a controlled crash landing.

Technically commercial airliners aren't sealed either. They're just sealed *enough* that the extra air being pumped in the by pressurization system can maintain a pressure equal to roughly 6-8k' despite all the air that's constantly leaking out.

Now imagine after the jump, having to track down and recover hundreds of potentially injured and unconscious passengers spread over hundreds of square miles of who knows what kind of terrain.

I'm LITERALLY waiting in an airport to get on a 737 to houston as I'm watching this. What the hell, I feel like I'm being watched LMAO

The parachutes on planes are for the planes, not people. Some training planes have emergency plane parachutes to ease the crash. They are usually bright and can be plainly seen by rescuers looking for the plane. In a case like that, hopefully there would be plains available to land the plane in.

"On a commercial airliner, every system is going to be double or triple redundant" - say that to the ONE angle of attack sensor that was hooked up the the stability system (that pilots also weren't told actually existed) on the 737 max that caused those crashes

Redundency is very very important, that is why Boeing made sure to only put only one angle of attack sensor on their MCAS system...

Remember, to avoid issues with cabin pressure, outside temperature and high speeds, make sure to jump when the pIane is sIow and Iow, i.e. when most accidents happen anyway.

In case somebody wants to mention ejection seat : for the majority of accidents, it's safer if you evacuate normally - there is no way to safely eject 200-400 people - the seat's rocket motor will probably make a lot of grilled humans around your seat, and any loose item in the cabin affected by the seat will probably become hazardous projectiles that will punch holes through a lot of people - Final Destination stuff, basically even if they can magically fit those in, but if you're not trained to use it, you're likely gonna die or seriously injured because of it instead - for example, a few limbs might get ripped off if they're not where they're supposed to be

5:19 General aviation accident statistics are very much not the same as commercial aviation statistics, and this video is explicitly about the latter - the point about phases of flight still stands, but that pie chart is just misleading :/ (The reason more crashes happen during landing and takeoff is also that the ground is closer, and crashes often involve the ground)

"This is your captain speaking. Please fasten your seat belts as we are experiencing some mild turbulence. That one mf that brought a parachute: "Not today." *Opens cabin door

Even if it was possible, and all else went "well," that would be one crowded sky. There would be tons of deaths from parachute to parachute collisons. Also, high altutide parachutingnis possible with scuba like gear. The army calls it HALO, i used to reman some of it, its pretty cool stuff, but its more complex then a regular jump.

Anyone who thinks parachutes on commercial planes would be a good idea, knows nothing about parachutes or commercial planes.

2:15 Technically this isn't 100% true. While you absolutely would get sucked out due to the depressurization, there have been people who have skydived from heights at and above commercial airline altitude (and survived). Obviously most of those were doing things like testing pressure suits and such but there have been some without pressure suits/without functional pressure suits. But regardless of that, those were all people who were extremely well trained skydivers usually testing things for the military in case of emergency ejections for pilots/astronauts, not the general public who would absolutely not fair nearly as well. But theoretically speaking you probably won't die from the lack of oxygen and cold before hitting the ground, you would just die from hitting the ground when you failed to skydive properly/get knocked unconscious from the depressurization

There is a scene in Shute’s IN THE WET where a visiting politician demands why the royal 747 does not have a Very pistol, while the pilot tries to explain that if they were in trouble, setting off manual flares would not help, and they can’t set it down just anywhere.

Sam must feel so accomplished that he was finally able to talk about planes.

Video sponsored by Boeing

i am LIVING for these slightly longer HAI videos

That's why I carry my own parachute whenever I am on a flight.

But Sam, what if I waited to jump out of the plane until after it had fallen to a survivable altitude, spending that extra time making sure I had my parachute on right? Would it be any less of a terrible idea then?

Saw once an article about somebody suggesting a system where people would be seatbelted to their seats at all times during the flight, though not just normal hip-belts, but instead four-point belts like fighter pilots, and in case something would happen, the seats would be released through the back of the plane on rails, with a small inflateable hood being deployed over the head of the passenger for air, and the parachute would deploy from the backrest of their seat. Though even if that system worked, as you described here, all these extra-systems would probably add up weight preeeeetty fast, reducing both the number of possible passengers and luggage and range for such planes.

Commercial airlines could save so much weight, thus reducing the cost of tickets for passengers and allowing the executives to buy more horses, by eliminating the double and triple redundant mechanical systems. Why haven't they done this?

2:45 No? Even in an explosive decompression this wouldn't happen, worst case scenario the person sitting next to the hole could get sucked out if they weren't buckled

You can’t get most of the pax to get a life jacket on. I don’t want to think of a plane load ‘the general public’ trying to put a parachute on. 😂

Commenting before the video but there are planes that have plane-sized parachutes built into the body of the plane, mostly on single prop private craft but the technology is there and they've already saved multiple lives from engine failures

Airlines should just tell passengers that their emergency life vests can also be used as parachutes. They’re about equally likely to save you in either case.

The part about being sucked out of the plane isnt really true, thats just movie science. In reality it would mostly only be strong enough to suck the air and some light object, not people

OK, you're ruled out parachutes, but what about ejector seats for every passenger?

Absolutely fantastic! I really appreciate you ability and willingness to branch out, but we know THIS is your wheelhouse. Loved it! One of your best videos in years. Can't wait for another.

Wait, Half as Interesting is also Wendover? I was totally oblivious to that

Most people making these comments have no idea how chaotic it is in a crashing airliner. They should watch the air crash videos available on RU-vid.

I once was on a plane that had mechanical failure because it hit a flock of birds which got stuck in the engines... and 3 out of 4 engines shutdown, and pilots still managed to turn around and land back in the airport of departure... So yeah parachute wouldn't help there because we were too low still anyway...

Another problem he didn’t mention is if you parachuted over water. Even if you survive the parachute jump, you won’t survive in the sea. When I was in the military, I heard our pilots would only survive in the sea, in winter temperatures, for 7 minutes without wearing an immersion suit before they succumb to hypothermia. Imagine the Titanic with no life rafts. Also, from my experience in the military, I call bullsh*t that aircraft can’t carry weight. We had over 50kg luggage allowance each and the trooper aircraft was at max capacity (291 pax? The aircraft had a 45,000 kg dry payload). So Airlines saying they can’t carry weight is just them being greedy and trying to maximise their profits. Even Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 flew with over 10 tonnes of cargo (a shipment of lithium ion batteries and mangosteen fruit) in addition to its passengers and their luggage.

I literally talked about this yesterday. Haven't watched yet, but I'm assuming you re-iterate the sad truth that parachutes would be useless to 99% of people since they don't know how to use it, and the exit from the plane would likely be more dangerous than surviving the landing.

thanks for all the tips sam, gonna jump out of my next flight in your honor!

ANA: if we make passengers go to the bathroom before taking off we'll save 8¢ worth of fuel for each one. Ryanair: no, no, no, if they have to go to the bathroom while they're in the air we can charge them much more than that!

I'm a cabin crew and I get asked "where's my parachute stowed" all the time. When I tell them there's no parachutes they get horrified and no amount of explanation helps...

DB Cooper has entered the chat

Okay, but I'm built different. I'd survive.

It's worth mentioning that US special operations have at least experimented with jumping from commercial airliners. Whether or not that capability still exists is unknown and it required the use of special, high altitude equipment.

5:30 I boarded a flight where engine 2-4's starters didn't work. they had a built in redundancy that allowed them to start the other engines with the power from engine 1

6:24 or Boeing's fault!!!

Couldn’t you wait until the plane falls to an altitude you could survive jumping from before jumping out? If it’s crashing it should pass through a lower atmosphere before it hits the ground.

Just watched this sitting at an airport gate about to go to Houston, where i dont particularly want to go. Nice call.

The last time we tried the whole parachutes on planes thing, they were golden and it worked out for a few (former) Boeing execs but not so well for the rest of us.

5:39 Doubly and triply redundant means there are two and three things _in total_ respectively. So, in the case of a failure, there are _one_ and _two_ backups, not two and three backups.

Maybe I missed it, but it seemed like you missed a critical point in all of this analysis: how long are you in these conditions? I mean sure, its very very cold up there, but if I bring a jacket, and start the jump warm, how cold will I be before the temperature gets to a reasonable level while descending at terminal velocity? Same for oxygen. People can hold their breath with zero oxygen whatsoever for a minute at least. After a minute of free fall decent, what will their altitude be? If we count in the fact that they can breath some oxygen in the whole time, I don't see how air should be a problem. It takes about 2 minutes from leaving a plane at 30k to get down to an elevation of 10k where we know everything is fine.

I recall hearing of how a plane attendant was in a plane that suddenly broke apart (can't remember if it was shot down or not); she was pinned under a snack trolley, and eventually passed out due to the altitude and having lower blood pressure (or the like) than the airline allowed, having hidden the fact. She survived the full fall despite being pinned, and went on to serve a few more years on other airlines having not remembered the whole ordeal (due to head trauma or the like). Sure someone might remember her name and inform more, but I believe she worked a few decades longer, but can't remember for sure.

Love the nonchalant and shameless plug of your other channel Sam ❤ I would expect nothing less from this channel 😂

Who is watching this due to insomnia

OMG Happy Easter HAI!

One thing you forgot to mention. Airliner doors are designed so that you can't open them if flight. Ever notice that they open outward and you can't push a 300 pound door against a 400 mph slipstream. Another factor is that when it is figured out that the airplane is going to crash it is already too low to the ground. Even if you could get to a door you would probably hit the ground before your parachute opened.

Well, there was that guy who went to jail because he decided to bail out of a (perfectly working) aircraft with a parachute as a youtuber-influencer-viral-video stunt that went badly for him for lying to the feds. But on the plus side, some aircraft do have whole-aircraft parachutes - the Cirrus SR-22 being the most common example. If you get in trouble in any phase, you deploy it by pulling a handle and then you come down gently in a more survivable accident. It's saved a number of lives, but it's for the whole aircraft.

Judging by his facial expression, that guy at 4:12 definitely caused whatever it is that's happening to that plane.

Don't forget, if you do bring your parachute, know how to use it, you have an oxygen mask and heat suit (or just anything to stop you from dying from the cold and hypoxia) you still can't **physically open the door**, due to the crazy speed and air pressure you have better chances trying to open a vault door with the locks still on, so yeah good luck even being able to jump out. And even if you do jump out you will likely hit the horizontal stabiliser, even if you do/miss all of that magically you probably will just end out in the ocean and drown or be stuck in an incredibly rural area with no service or hell even the side of a mountain or in the middle of the desert where help would struggle to even come

Regarding the crashes, in how many cases could you actually have the time to realise you can put one on, put one on, then get out? not only do most crashes not take place during a moment when you could under normal circumstances drop, most accidents happen in quick succession, not the minutes you would need to put one on

0:12 lol i was on a 737 going to houston when I read the headline that the boeing ceo resigned

was not aware of the hudson river crash statistics with the life vests, thats actually really interesting and kinda shocking

FYI you have bigger chance died during parachuting than staying on the plane, on emergency situation.

3:22 ... Um no, the correct answer is not "rich guy horses." It's customer airfares will be pressured to go up.

1. Attach the parachutes to every pair of seats, with an automatic deploy mechanism 2. Once the plane reaches a certain safe altitude, depressurize the cabin to allow the passengers to adapt to the external environment. 3. Implement a mechanism of rails that glides the seats out of the aircraft, to the rear, away from the engines. 4. Make the seats gps-trackable.

0:15 Fun fact: planes technically have structural paper parts. It's made of aramid fibres instead of wooden ones but still. (It's called Nomex honeycomb if you want to google it)

What about a parachute for the entire plane, like you can get for smaller planes? Wouldn't work in all situations, but would work in enough.

“Correction, sir. That’s blown out” -Commander Data

Dissapointed this wasnt a video about how comically ridiculous a single giant parachut carrying an entire 737 would be

Not me immediately thinking of DB cooper lol

At 35 000 feet, you need positive pressure breathing for your lungs to even work. The drop-downs basically are useless until we get you to 25000’. We plan do rapidly descend to 15000’ on decompression. Its quite a ride.

Boeing: what redundancy? triple layer of safety feature?! You get half a safety feature, take it or leave it!

Reminded me of a time in GTA San Andreas when I tried to take off in a damaged plane. Once the plane took off it got very unstable so I made the decision to bail out. It did come with the parachute, but just like in a slapstick cartoon, the parachute deployed just when I hit the ground. Yeah that was a WASTED screen.

We jumped from jets in the Army. It had a special screen that broke up the air to stop you from getting slammed back into the fuselage. Still, I cannot imagine making this work for 100 plus civilians.

6:30 correction - 100% of plane crashes happen at landing

Fantastic video! I enjoyed this style. I hope making it was cathartic to make!

Balancing the air pressure at 35,000 can be done pretty quick, so it's not really a thing. Cabin pressure is about 8000 ft when the aircraft is at 35,000 - so the difference in pressure is 7.5 PSI. Not a big deal to equalize in (say) 30-60 seconds through the existing pressure regulation valves. Ears will hurt. Of course you'll need oxygen (100%) due to the partial pressure difference - and a simple mask would be good for about 10 - 15 minutes which is a "possible" time to get everyone 'chuted and out the door. (Normally above 25,000 feet a "diluter demand" mask is used). The real issues are bulk, weight, process and egress. Bulk and weight can be greatly reduced with a simple one-time use parachute system and only one chute (not the standard 2). The process to put this on would also be very simplified. And since it's for survival, not sport jumping, it also would not be full size - you would get to the ground at a bonejarring speed. But be alive - possibly with frostbite here and there. The last problem is egress. The aircraft would have to have exit points (including some of the existing doors) compatible with getting out of the aircraft w/o slamming into a wing or the horizontal stabilizer. A 727 style rear stairway would be great. But, all in all, given aviation's safety record, and the logistics of maintaining all these chutes ... just not worth it.

Anyone wondering why an airplane can never use a huge parachute?

2:30 No vacuum is created, and nothing is getting sucked out. The higher pressure air inside the cabin is _pushing _ everything out.

Fun fact: Except for accidents that happen before liftoff, all plane crashes happen during landing

Can I just say I love these longer videos!

They don't? Good lord