If a hole is ripped in an airliners inflight, would be the passengers be immediately rendered unconscious?

Question

Bit of a morbid question, but will help settle a disagreement that a friend and I have. We were talking about an instance a couple years back where a couple people were sucked out of a commercial airliner at 35,000 feet. The parents of one of the victims said that worst part about it was knowing that their son was fully aware of what was happening to him during the freefall to his death. I say that someone sucked out a plane would be immediately rendered unconscious or dead due to the change in cabin pressure, the freezing temperature, and being sucked out an object moving at 500mph . A websearch has provided little evidence either way.

Can anyone help prove or repute how a human would likely react being sucked out a moving airliner?

Answer 1

They would not necessarily be immediately rendered unconscious. You  are probably thinking of Aloha 90 in 1988. It happened at 24,000 feet and it was a flight attendant who was ejected, not a couple.  The people who were not ejected remained conscious and they were subjected to the same change in cabin pressure and the same change in temperature. In fact, some passengers were able to prevent a second flight attendant from being ejected.

The pilot immediately descended to a lower altitude because the oxygen is too thin to breathe at 24,000 feet and it's too cold. That is standard procedure when any pressurized aircraft loses pressurization.

It is quite possible that you could lose consciousness on the descent, but it would not necessarily be immediate. Otherwise, the passengers should also have been affected.

There was also an explosive decompression on an American Airlines DC-10 during the mid-1970's. No one was ejected, but the passengers didn't lose consciousness on that flight, either.

Answer 2

The passengers left in the airplane would pass out in a matter of a very few minutes.  Anyone sucked out would pass out very quickly due to lack of oxygen and the cold.  I think that he would be dead very quickly.

Answer 3

No you would not be render unconscious immediately it would take a few minutes before you black out.