What is the REAL purpose of those oxygen masks that fall from the ceiling in a plane?

Question

1) So that you can breathe in the fall, to hopefully survive a horrible crash?

2) To get high on oxygen so that you accept death.

3) Or so you aren't able to smell everyone pooping in their pants?

or is there another reason for them?

Answer 1

Sometimes they come down if the plane loses pressure ! And you wont die if you have oxygen on

Answer 2

Quite a few aircraft have survived depressurizations, so the real reason is so that the passengers dont pass out before reaching a lower altitude. If you are at 40,000ft it would take nearly 5 minutes to reach a safe altitude to breath. You would only last about 3 minutes before passing out (it takes about 3 minutes to exhaust the oxygen in your blood).

Answer 3

I'd like to use a life line. yes call a friend.  yea tyler durden. what's that tyler? 2? okay 2 it is

Answer 4

4) to distract you in the final moments before you die.

Answer 5

Most commercial aircraft are fitted with oxygen masks for use when cabin pressurisation fails. In general, commercial aircraft are pressurised so that the cabin air is at a pressure equivalent to about 8,000 feet altitude, where one can breathe normally without an oxygen mask. If the oxygen pressure in the cabin drops below a safe level, risking hypoxia, compartments containing the oxygen masks will open automatically, either above or in front of the passenger and crew seats, and in the lavatories

Answer 6

They are called "ADB's"  which stands for.. amazingly enough..  automatic drop boxes...  they are connected through an altimetric contoller that drops them if the cabin exceeds 13,000  It costs about  between $5,000- 10,000 to reinstall them if they deploy on an average 125+ seat aircraft. They come down 3 different ways. If the cabin exceeds 13,000,  the selector is moved through the manual drop position accidentally or if the crew deploys them in an emergency, such as smoke in the cabin.  #2 is something you have to think about when you are arming the sytem... because turn the handle one way.. and you did your job, turn it the other way.. and you may LOSE your job... because BOING.. you just deployed all the boxes.. and not only do they have to be repacked.. but now the airplane is out of service.. and you have a lot of PO'd passengers that won't be going anywhere for awhile.  The plane will get towed to maintenance and it will take HOURS to repack them.

Most commercial flights are around FL 350 and in the event of rapid depressurization, you would be better off if you had some oxygen to breathe. It will take a few minutes to get the plane down to a lower altitude where you may breathe more easily...  just because the air is thinner, doesn't mean that you are going to pass out and die. YES.. that  would happen at 35,000 but you are not going to be there for long. PIlots masks must be able to don and apply 100% ox in less than 3 seconds using ONE hand. They work GREAT.  I love the answers that think you are going to DIE at 25,000 with out o2...  I wonder how they figure the World War I guys flew above 16,000 with out O2 at all...  They didn't even know what "altitude sickness" was for years. You can walk around on Mt. Evans in Colorado and it is over 14,000 and you will feel the effects of the altitude (reduced partial pressure) but that is all.  

I saw guys sucking on the 100% O2 the morning after a hard night of drinking... but I never saw where it made that much of a difference.   I HAVE worn my mask because of a stink in the airplane....but that was normally caused because of flying in Florida where all the old grandmas hose themselves down with perfume just before you land... and when you touch down and the squat switch closes and vents the cabin through the forward bulkhead... it pulls ALL that cabin air into the cockpit.. and going into Ft Myers.. it can blind you...

Answer 7

The real purpose of the oxygen masks is to provide oxygen should the aircraft depressurize, as the air over 14,000 does not contain enough oxygen for a human to continue to live, should one have to breath it.

There have been many incidents where deployed oxygen masks have been used by passengers and the aircraft did not crash.

Regards,

Dan

Answer 8

its so that if the air presssure drops in the plane you can breathe properly. has nothing to do with the plane crashing!

Answer 9

If the aircraft loses pressurization and you are over 10,000 feet, there is very low oxygen in the  air and you will pass out and eventually suffocate.

Pilots train on grabbing their masks and pushing the aircraft down immediately in case of  this type of emergency.

Answer 10

None of the above, although 3 is a secondary benefit.

They are there to help the passengers survive the few minutes it takes to go from 30-40,000 feet where the air is too thin to breath, to 10,000 where we can survive. The pure oxygen than comes out of them provides the oxygen needed to sustain life, without it we would pass out, then die.

Airplanes have a pressurized cabin; that is air is pumped in to make the pressure the same as it would be at 10,000 feet. If any failure in the pressurization system occurs an alarm tells the pilot to descend as rapidly as possible to a safe altitude. They are trained to be alert at all times for mountains below and other aircraft so that they don't have to waste time checking before the descent. When the dive begins the passengers will feel very light until the plane is decending at a constant rate. The pilot has to reduce the engine power and control the descent angle to avoid ging too fast and over stressing the airframe. When approaching 10000 feet, she will be sure to pullout gently enough to avoid too high G-forces, the passengers will feel slightly heavy for a short period.  The plane will then travel at a slow speed and low altitude to the (pre-planned) emergency landing field.

The cabin crew are trained to deal with it. They will have portable oxygen set available to wear while the go about the cabin making sure that the passengers have put their own ones on correctly. Once at 10,000 feet the crew may instruct you can take off the mask unless you have a very weak respiratory system. Fit people may even do without the mask at higher altitudes, but expect firm command to put it backon from the crew. The masks deliver enough oxygen to share a mask.

This happens several times a year as the pressurization system is susceptible to even small holes in the aircraft skin. The real risk is that the incident that caused depressurisation has also caused more serious damage, thats the bit to worry about, not the depresurization itself.

Answer 11

The masks supply extra oxygen so that you can remain properly oxygenated at high altitude, in the event that the aircraft loses its pressurization.  They keep you conscious and prevent you from developing hypoxia during the short time necessary to descend to an altitude where extra oxygen isn't necessary.

Answer 12

It is for pure distraction purposes only.

Studies have shown it takes approximately 7 - 9 minutes for passengers to even figure out how to use the oxygen masks, in which time, the plane will have either burst into flames, crashed into a mountain, or sank into the ocean, which gives the pilots 7 - 9 minutes of confused silence (versus mayhem and screaming) to attempt to save the plane, and also to say 3 Hail Mary's, before crashing.

Answer 13

Well the oxygen masks drop if there is any radical change in air pressure. And you'll probably find that most of the times they are dropped, the plane doesn't actually crash, because plane crashes are in fact quite rare.

And "get high on oxygen"? That isn't really possible.... Seeing as we breave it every day and we don't walk around high i think. And if it was pure oxygen it wouldn't make you high to accept your death, it would just kill you instead.

Answer 14

The planes are pressurized so you can still breathe, normally, above 10,000 feet. If the pressurization system fails the masks drop to supply oxygen while the pilot descends to 10,000 feet or lower. Guess it would help to keep the smell of your own p**p out of your olfactory cells though. LOL

Answer 15

4)to really know what those are for before you die

Answer 16

They drop automatically in the event of cabin depressurization. At the altitude normally flown by commercial jets you have SECONDS of useful consciousness, so instead of making jokes just get yours on as fast as you can.

While you're doing that, the pilots are going to be executing a very exciting high-performance dive to get out of the thin air up high and into the oxygen-rich air below about 12,000 feet. I've only done this in pressurized airplanes like King Airs and Barons. In those we pull the power, drop gear and spoilers for drag, roll into a 45-degree bank and drop the nose to descend at the top end of our airspeed limits (in this case, the maximum gear-extended airspeed).

In a little airplane like that, this procedure pins the vertical speed indicator at > 4000 fpm and we're down to 12,500 (our target) in no more than a couple minutes. The big jets would descend even faster.

So you could say the oxygen mask keeps you conscious for the most high-performance maneuver you'll ever have the pleasure to experience in a commercial airliner.

Oh, and by the way it sounds like someone's been breaking the first rule of Fight Club.