Why there is no ejection seats for emergency situation on commercial flights?

Question

Why there is no ejection seats for emergency situation on commercial flights?

Answer 1

An ejection seat is a very powerful and violent device for which pilots must have special training, which is part of military flight training.  99.9 percent of airline passengers are hard pressed to figure out how to tie their own shoes, much less use an intense machine like an ejection seat.  The seat would kill most ordinary people.

Also, they are heavy and very expensive, most airplane accidents occur at altitudes too low for parachutes to be of any use, and in almost any imaginable accident scenario, the solid, rugged fuselage of the airplane provides much better protection for the passengers than they would have if they were thrown out of the airplane by an ejection seat.

That's why not.

Answer 2

A better question is why does THIS question get reasked about every 5-7 days?

Answer 3

Lots of money!

Answer 4

There are a number of reasons...

Firstly, ejection seats are powered by rockets... and without proper training and a good level of fitness, the acceleration the body is subjected to is easily capable of killing you. Military pilots get special training in how to survive ejections... but it's still a high risk operation (Pilots are only allowed to eject a certain number of times before being stopped from flying... the compression of the spine that results can cause all sorts of damage). Even if a passenger survived an ejection, they would probably sue the airline for any injuries caused!

Secondly, in order to get a seat on an airliner to exit the roof of the cabin, you would need a very powerful system to remove the cabin roof... and this would add a lot of weight to the aircraft and also add an element of risk to every flight.

Similarly, ejector seats are very heavy... the extra weight they add to the aircraft would mean the aircraft would either need less passengers, or more powerful engines which would use more fuel... in either case, the airline would make less money.

More importantly, a soon as you add an explosive device to an aircraft (which is exactly what an ejection system is), you increase the risk to the aircraft, crew and passengers as there is now something to go wrong that could be catastrophic if it does. Military aircraft are already risky... carrying explolsive bombs, flying a very low altitudes, being shot at... the extra risk added by an ejector seat is worth it... but for a civillian aircraft, the extra risk would be too high (in fact even military cargo aircraft have no ejection systems).

And lastly... Most comercial aircraft fly at such high altitude that if somebody was to eject at this high altitude, the lack of oxygen and the low air temperature would more than likely kill most, if not all of the passengers and crew once they had ejected.

All in all, it's just not a viable solution... Luckily, comercial air travel is still one of the safest ways to travel.

Answer 5

Because they would cause more trouble than their worth, people ejecting by accident and causing explosive decompression and kills everyone on board. and most of them work by way of explosives, and you should be able to make that connection yourself,(plus the money issue)

Answer 6

Ejection seats require training.  Without knowing the correct ejection envelope (to make an intelligent "ejection decision"), and proper body positioning-it can be EXTREMELY dangerous.  Even military crews who have the training look on it as a last resort-speaking from personal experience I would much rather take my chances on the jet.  The chances of severe injury can be high:  I know of four guys who had to punch, in the F4 and Viper: ALL of them suffered extensive back and neck trauma-and it still bothers them to this day; over 20 years later.  If these fully trained and qualified aircrews can get hurt; what would happen to average Joe BagO'donuts who can't even fasten his seatbelt and turn off his d**n cellphone?

Secondly, as has been pointed out, nearly all commercial accidents occur on takeoff and landing-both very bad flight regimes to punch out in, even with a zero-zero seat.  (Meaning zero altitude zero airspeed).

Answer 7

Because These Planes Are Very Big And Wil Require Lots Of Money

Answer 8

1- Ejection seats with their attachment cradle weight much more than normal passenger seat, so an airplane would have much less capacity, requiring a major increase in airline ticket

2- Ejection seats need a way out, that means a clear path to the side/top of the plane. How could this be arranged if you don't have a window seat? How can this be done with the overhead storage compartment?

3- Ejection seats use rocket to blast off. How is anyone going to ensure each seat blasts off without blasting off whichever seat occupant that has not yet blasted off?

4- Ejection seats are triggered by the occupant. How is one going to ensure some idiot does not pull the handle during an otherwise uneventful flight?

5- Ejection seats are meant to save the life of fighter pilots who's job includes the risk of being shot at, bailing out of airplane at any altitude; that is why they have oxygen mask. Commercial passengers are not equipped with air supply in this manner.

6- Emergency situations in commercial aircraft usually occur at takeoff or landing. Jumping from the altitude of 20 feet is not going to really help, the real problem is with the 150 mph forward motion.

7- The number of times an airliner was in a crash where passenger could have been saved with an ejection seat is most likely zero. On the other hand, the number of times where it would have been more dangerous to bail out of an airplane rather than stay on board is pretty impressive. Contrary to public perception, most passengers in aircraft accident walk away from it.

Answer 9

Well this question has been answered pretty well already. Ejection seats are inherently dangerous, complex, expensive, and require significant training and special procedures to operate.

But there is also the simple practicality of it all:

I assume you're talking about ejection seats for everyone. I'd really hate to see 300 people ejecting in rocket powered seats from an airplane all at the same time. Wow. What a horrible, tangled mess that would make. In which direction are all 2 or 300 of them going to punch out? It's complex enough designing an ejection seat system for a two-seat airplane which will work so that neither occupant hits or interferes with the other, let alone dozens or hundreds of seats.

With the way ejection seats work, it's just not practical, whichever way you look at it.