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Comment by datashovel | Hacker News Reader

There's probably room here for a niche consumer product. Something that one could wear on a flight discretely, that would behave as a makeshift parachute should one find oneself in this circumstance. If it were cheap enough (and not ridiculously uncomfortable) I'd probably consider buying one.

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A related niche thing I'd go for would be flight that when arriving at the destination city would drop to 10,000 feet, open a door and allow any passengers carrying parachutes to jump out before continuing to the airport. Much more entertaining than getting a cab.

You would need a parachute for a cabin bag and checkin luggage too in that case! :)

Sign me up. When I'm flying home I get very irritated passing over my house on the way to the airport, knowing that it will take me another couple of hours to get back to my house.

I used to get up before the sun, drive 30 miles to the regional airport, wait an hour to get on a plane to Chicago, fly there, wait an hour for another plane to San Jose, get on that and fly for half an hour and then...look down and see my house. THAT sucked.

Wearing one of those...the TSA may want a word with you.

Bringing a parachute on a airplane is fine. The problem is there is no good way to exit a modern airliner.

In a situation where you are free falling from 35,000 feet, the problem of exiting said modern airliner has already, apparently, been solved.

If your last name is Cooper you may not be allowed on the flight. No reason.

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper to know why

I've taken a parachute as carry-on multiple times... only been a problem once.

There's a pretty narrow case where that would be useful. If the plane breaks apart at 500mph at cruising altitude you will most likely die immediately.

Absolutely. If a commercial plane is too damaged to make a reasonable emergency landing, you probably won't get to use your parachute.

The only case it would be useful if if there's nowhere in range to make a reasonable landing -- no airports, no water, no roadways, no flat land. Given that your fly thousands of feet above the ground, it's unlikely that would happen.

It's worth noting that "water" is the last thing in that list that you'd want to consider landing on.

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