Why don't planes have parachutes?

Question

I always wondered this. Would it be too expensive or something?

Answer 1

Too expensive, got to be trained and no air at 35,000 feet when you jump out.

Answer 2

It is hard enough to get out of an airliner on the ground when the plane is standing still at the gate now imagine 300 idiots that did not listen to the flight attendant's briefing trying to figure out how to use a parachute for the first time then imagine that the airplane is moving around tossing you up and down and back and front now we come to the fact that in a pressurized aircraft you can not open the doors until it is depressurized oh yeah and you are flying at 400 MPH hope you don't hit the tail on your way out. More people would die attempting to exit the aircraft than if they rode it in during an emergency landing!!!! As for the guy who mentioned ejection pods your just an idiot if every passenger had an ejection pod the plane would weigh too much it would never get off the ground and if it did manage to get off the ground its performance would be so badly degraded it would be more likely to crash.

Answer 3

First off, the vast majority of accidents happen at take off or landing, where a parachute is useless. There is not enough altitude or time to use a parachute.

Take it from someone that jumps out of planes for fun. There is not enough room to put on a parachute in a commercial plane. Everyone would have to wear the rigs before getting on the aircraft. Even if everyone had a parachute there is no safe way to exit the aircraft. You would need special equipment and training to survive the 560 + mph winds and 30,000 foot plus altitudes. Without extra oxygen and protective gear you would die in that environment. The fastest skydiving jumps are at 150 knots, not 500 + knots and are made from 18,000 feet MSL or lower. Just getting out of the airplane could kill you as you'd be slammed into the door on exit.  Further, the location of the wing and the engines with respect to the location of the doors would make it nearly impossible to exit the aircraft without hitting the wings, stabilizer or the engine.  The next issue would be landing a parachute. Most likely this case would use rounds and you'd just have to do a parachute landing fall. That is easy enough to learn. The steering of the canopy would require training. I'd say that about 25% of the people on any flight are not healthy enough to survive a normal skydive. The very young, old, and anyone not in good health would have no chance at surviving the exit, parachute flight or landing.

As a skydiver we know that at some point we will have to exit our aircraft during an aircraft emergency, it doesn’t happen very often, almost never, but it does.  But here is the catch, you need time and altitude to open up the parachute.  We wear seat belts in the plane for taxi, take off, and if needed landing.  If there is a problem with the aircraft under 1000 feet above the ground you go down with the plane.  In a commercial flight you will climb past 1000 feet very quickly but there will not be enough time to put on a parachute system, nor enough time to get everyone out of the plane.  The vast majority of the very rare commercial accidents happen right after take off or on landing…. A parachute would be useless.

For more information about traveling with a parachute you can check out www.uspa.org and there is a link to the TSA rules about traveling with rigs.

In the big picture. commercial airline flights are very safe and not something to worry about.  I travel for a living.  Taking two or more flights a week across the US.  I hate landing in planes because I’d rather be jumping out and landing my parachute, but it is impossible to do that safely from a commercial aircraft; never mind the less than legal part of it.

As for flotation devises, I don’t know about you, but when I get into water all I do is prolong my drowning.  I’m very glad there is something there to help me float if needed.  The parachutes are pointless, the flotation device, might of might not be useful, but I like having the piece of mind.  Perhaps having a parachute on the plane would give piece of mind, even if it couldn’t be used.

Answer 4

This is a frequently asked question here.  See below and read all the answers...there are many reasons.  Also, if you use the SEARCH bar and just type in "Why don't airliners have parachutes?"  you will get a whole page full of articles about this.