Why where those people in the small plane not electrocuted when that plane crashed into 350,000vt power lines?

Question

Why where those people in the small plane not electrocuted when that plane crashed into 350,000vt power lines?

Answer 1

you must be earthed to be electrocuted, electricity seeks the easiest path to the floor, thats also how birds do not get electrocuted when they sit on power lines.

Answer 2

Electricity travels through the path of least resistance from a high potential to ground.  If the people weren't grounded, then there was no path for the electricity to go through them.  

Answer 3

There was no path through them to a lower potential (like to ground)

so the eletrons did not flow through them

Same reason they use helicopters to fix high tension lines, they touch the lines but since they are not connected to ground or a low potential no power flows, the wire is much more attractive then you body

Answer 4

The people din't complete a ground circuit for the electricity to travel through.  Could be insulation or no ground contact. Electricity travels through a conductor and looks for the path of least resistance. If you have insulating shoes on and touch an electrical wire that is making ground the electricity is going to continue through its established ground and is not going to shock you because you are insulated or not making ground, but if you make ground it will go both ways to improve the flow ( The current would decrease but the voltage stays the same).

Answer 5

Simply: if they didn't complete a path to ground or to a return, then current will not flow through them.

Electricity flows through a conductor, or a semiconductor when it has a complete path from the source and back again, or to a different electrical potential with enough energy storage capacity to draw a current.

In the case of birds and this airplane crash you cite, there is no return path.  The plane may be a different potential when it first hits the power line, but it wouldn't take much current into the body of the plane as well as its occupants to bring it to the same electrical potential.  

In reality, the plane probably changes electrical potential constantly as it flies due to static charges.

Answer 6

because they were holding on to rubber tires which can not conduct electricity but metal can but they were holding on to the rubber wheels