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Comment by haunter | Hacker News Reader

Video from a passanger, the hull is upside down!

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=617972644350232

I know they need to control any possibility of a fire but man would it be a rude awakening to escape a significant plane crash, release your seatbelt while hanging upside down, make it to the exit door and then get sprayed in the face with cold water on a February day in Toronto.

ill take that over consumption by fire

After feeling like you might have legitimately barely escaped death everything you can feel feels pretty good until the adrenaline high wears off.

Better cold water and not PFAS/firefighting foam

edit: apparently Canada banned PFAS in firefighting foam.

The US Forest Service also banned firefighting foam in parks or anywhere where endangered species are found. Now that they're defunded I bet we're gonna get a lot more of that stuff everywhere

Don’t forget OSHA. Those chemicals and nomex turnout gear are a source of elevated cancers in firefighters.

...and not the large amounts of smoke they're exposed to?

Different. The nomex tends to wick contaminants to the skin, especially around the neck. Any exposure to the foam is a risk.

There’s a lot of people on fire service in my family. The old guys have bad knees, are dead, and have smoking related issues. The younger (<50) guys are getting neck, throat and lymph node cancers. 70% of line of duty deaths are due to occupational cancer.

What is it about TDS that causes those affected to insert this topic into every unrelated discussion?

They were flying from Minneapolis though. Maybe that’s just normal February weather for them?

Toronto is a good 20 degrees warmer than Minneapolis right now but we tend not to turn the sprinklers on in February for a little outside fun.

Also plenty of delta flights will layover at MSP.

I recently flew between California and Mexico, with a layover in Denver. I hadn't paid any attention to the whether in Denver, until we were landing on a runway surrounded by snow and it dawned on my that I didn't even have a sweater. If we had to evacuate I'd have been in trouble, but even having a canceled flight could mean spending the night in a hotel there, without warm clothing that I could wear outside.

If I just survived a plane crash that would be the last thing on my mind.

Yeah I'd be fucking shocked but then crazily happy...

One of the two ejected rear passengers in Asiana 214 (neither of which were wearing their seat belt) was unlucky enough to have initially survived, only to be doused in firefighting foam and then run over.

When it's your time to go ...

And another one

https://old.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/1iruc70/vid...

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On a side note, it is crazy someone would take a selfie video before exiting a crashed airplane.

On a side note, it is crazy someone would take a selfie video before exiting a crashed airplane.

It's literally once in a lifetime, and it didn't look like anyone was in serious danger after they realised they'd survived.

It's not unusual for people in a plane crash to survive, then die from smoke inhalation because the people in front of them took too long to evacuate the plane.

Per the referenced link, of the 35 serious incidents between 1983 and 2017, there were 3,823 aircraft occupants. In that group, if you either survived or died from smoke/fire, there is a 7.2% chance you died from smoke/fire.

I can't fine tune that number to determine you survived the crash, but then died from smoke or fire, since it did not easily differentiate pre-crash and post-crash fires.

I am not sure I would agree or disagree that it is usual to die from smoke inhalation after surviving a plane crash given the reason that people took too long to evacuate. It just feels like the upper limit of how many people die that way can't be that large since many of those smoke/fire deaths would not be attributable to that cause.

https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/data/Pages/Part121AccidentSurviv...

If they had time to look up these statistics, they surely had time to take a selfie, making the point moot.

>and it didn't look like anyone was in serious danger after they realised they'd survived

There was fuel gushing from the severed wing, hence why the water spray just above one of the exit doors, and you could see fire trying to flare up. It had the potential to turn catastrophic...or more catastrophic...in an instant.

There was a lot of behaviour that isn't super ideal, for instance people milling right near the plane seemingly to take videos/photos not only restricting the emergency crews but in a danger area.

I get people in shock from a near death experience doing irrational things like that, though. More concerning are the number of people rationalizing it with full clarity and consideration. Like on Reddit the number of people talking about how there is no way they were leaving their carry-on because their laptop has important work, or their bottle of aspirin, etc...just disastrous logic that literally gets people killed. Standing right in the area where emergency crews are trying to stop a plane from erupting into a fireball for that once in a lifetime selfie -- absolutely crazy behaviour.

There is a longer version that shows the inside of the plane. The flight attendant decisively and composedly ushering the passengers off the (upside down) plane. Hats off.

https://x.com/rawsalerts/status/1891632984500904441/video/1

I have a lot of antipathy towards the passengers who are getting out with their backpacks; if one takes the time to pick up their stuff they are probably in the way, take more time getting out, and could cause the death of other passengers or staff.

Don’t they actually get a heavy sanction? If not, maybe they should. I can imagine people with a suitcase getting prison time.

I think you should acknowledge that you and the person above are reading this sitting in a comfortable chair (or on the toilet), with little stress, good time to think, and the magic power of hindsight.

People just having been in a crash, however, are in a different situation. They've just been thrown upside down, having to release their seat buckles and fall down onto the roof, then being ushered out in panic. Them not behaving perfectly rational should be excused.

The way we increase the chances that everybody reading this will behave appropriately if they're ever in this situation is by strongly condemning those who did not.

He says, from his comfortable chair, and behind a keyboard, and not having just experienced a horrific plane crash.

He says, snarkily reiterating what’s already been said and ignoring the reasonable response.

If you have the presence of mind during a crash to look for your luggage, you're not in a panic, you're just selfish.

Flight Attendants are very well trained and, importantly, practiced at running evacuations. They run drills a couple days a year. They are tested to be able to empty a plane in 90 seconds.

If you want something to happen in an emergency, you either drill it to be instinct, or it won't happen reliably.

And the wing is missing

I think the tail assembly also sheared off.

Here's what the CRJ900 looks like intact: https://d3lcr32v2pp4l1.cloudfront.net/Pictures/780xany/0/8/3...

Tail and/or wing debris can be seen on the left side of this photo (forward of the aircraft nose): https://i.cbc.ca/1.7461358.1739833036!/cpImage/httpImage/ima...

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