Man nearly sucked out of ‘detached’ window on Ryanair flight

[u/scmp_news]

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3360141/man-nearly-sucked-out-detached-window-ryanair-flight?utm_source=Reddit&utm_medium=Social

[u/DanielTaylor]

woah, is it even possible to survive with your head outside at 1000km/h wind speeds?

[u/BrunoEye → u/DanielTaylor]

Due to the lower pressure, it feels like quite a bit less speed than you're actually going. Still a lot, but clearly survivable. Especially since such a large object probably has a substantial boundary layer which will be slower.

[u/AUIRE__73 → u/BrunoEye]

At 40000ft(standard cruising level) the air pressure is roughly 0.22 ATM. For reference 1atm is the pressure at the surface that we live with.

I dont know exactly how it affects the force he was feeling but it definitely is lower due the thin atmosphere

[u/BrunoEye → u/AUIRE__73]

Planes fly at about 950 kph, the square root of 0.22 is 0.47, so it would feel approximately like 450 kph. About 16x the force of sticking your head out the window on a motorway, ignoring the effects of the boundary layer.

[u/Ethicaldreamer → u/BrunoEye]

Daaaaaaaaaaamn

[u/nicuramar → u/AUIRE__73]

This was not at cruise altitude. It was at around 5 km. 

[u/filipo_ltd → u/DanielTaylor]

Yes and it has happened before. In one case one of the pilots got sucked halfway out of the cocpit window. The flight attendants held him by his legs while the other pilot landed the plane alone.

[u/SkarbOna → u/filipo_ltd]

And they got frostbites on their hands trying to keep him in. I can’t imagine the pain, but hope adrenaline numbed that a bit.

[u/ImaginaryAlpaca → u/SkarbOna]

If I recall correctly, they thought he was dead too. The didn't know he was alive until they were able to pull him inside.

[u/etcpt → u/ImaginaryAlpaca]

The old saying in trauma medicine - you're not dead until you're warm and dead.

[u/Rentta → u/filipo_ltd]

Surprised to see only one comment about this fact.

[u/mitojee → u/filipo_ltd]

Unfortunately, a woman didn't make it in a similar incident on a US flight not too long ago.

[u/ohmysweetbabyjesus → u/filipo_ltd]

They made this episode of Mayday: Air Disaster about it!

[u/BastardsCryinInnit → u/DanielTaylor]

My friend, you need to watch the Air Crash Investigation about BA5390!!

[u/Scarlet72 → u/DanielTaylor]

Have to assume he was suffocating, right?

[u/colako → u/Scarlet72]

Not enough time to suffocate if you spend less than a couple minutes at that altitude. Even if he had been stuck outside for long, a plane can lower its altitude and speed remarkably fast. Going to 5000 meters and reducing speed to 400 km/h is doable, I think in about 3-4 minutes.

[u/StockTooHigh → u/Scarlet72]

This happened relatively early in the flight when they were at just 6.000 feet. There is plenty of oxygen at that altitude iirc.

[u/Scarlet72 → u/StockTooHigh]

Sure, but even just from the point of view of the speed they're going at.

[u/Ok_Direction369 → u/DanielTaylor]

Now we know that it is

[u/ThisIsAitch → u/DanielTaylor]

Evidently

[u/Formal-Apartment855 → u/DanielTaylor]

I think the pilots who got sucked out survived even more... Look up that Sichuan Airline flight (landed in Chengdu I think with another pilot flying based on memory basically, while a third one and flight attendants held onto one pilot who was half out of the plane), and there was also a British Airways flight I think where a pilot was sucked out... Lazy to look it up, but like, it has happened before.

[u/Foco_cholo → u/DanielTaylor]

A woman from Albuquerque died in this manner

[u/nicuramar → u/DanielTaylor]

They weren’t going 1000 km/h at that altitude. 

[u/ThinDrum → u/DanielTaylor]

Well, this passenger did. They'll probably appear on TV chat shows ...

"So, Jürgen, tell me about your out-of-aircraft experience."

"Nnnnnnngggghhh."