Question:

Is it possible for a plane to crash and have everything in it and itself disintegrate except for a passport?

by  |  earlier

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Edit: Steven C. Your suspicion is incorrect. I'm only asking what I've specifically asked.

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3 ANSWERS


  1. No, passports are much less resistant to disintegration than, say, a black-box flight recorder.

    If you found a passport, then you could realistically assume that most of the aircraft is somewhere, but hasn't been found yet.

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  2. Planes don't disintegrate during crashes.  They burn and/or fall apart in the air or as they hit the ground or water.  

    I suspect the question is more about bodies disintegrating during a plane crash and only passports left to identify victims.  As gruesome as it sounds, this does happen, which is why plane crash investigators sift through the debris of a plane crash very carefully looking for everything including passports to identify victims.

    But to carefully answer your question, since a passport is not anymore durable than anything else in or part of the plane, it is not possible for a plane to crash only have a passport left unless said passport somehow escaped the crash by flying out a part of the ripped fuselage prior to impact.

    On a related note, I was in the north tower of the WTC in NYC on 911 and although I got out safely, I did leave my personal belongings on my desk, including my wallet.  Six months later, I received a letter stating that my drivers license had been found and asking if I was alive or not.

  3. No, crashes don't cause anything to disintegrate.  All the metal will be in the area and so will anything that didn't burn.

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