Originally Posted by
Radgirl
Why bother to have slides? Or any other emergency equipment for 'rare events'? Would you care to tell us the duration of consciousness in the case of sudden depressurisation in the cruise for a healthy adult? And would you care to postulate on how long an elderly patient with heart disease would survive? And compare it with the time needed for an emergency descent to 10,000 feet?
Not sure I would be happy without oxygen. Must pick one of the 75% of seats that has working oxygen. Ryannair would probably be charging a premium for them if they operated them
Time of useful consciousness at FL400: 15-20 seconds. Probably less than that for me, with significant heart disease in my old age.
Emergency descent from FL400 to 10,000 ft: A lot longer.
Flight Alloy:
Also, how often do airlines suffer depressurization with extended high altitude flight, where some failed masks would result in detectable injury to passengers?
Probably good to note that the "detectable injuries" to pax with non-functioning masks would likely range from significant permanent brain damage to death. Always important to consider when establishing risk factors.