some nut always comes up with a scheme involving passenger aircraft and big-ass parachutes. The last one I saw involved ejecting the flight crew and first-class cabin only (ostensibly for cost reasons -- those parachutes weigh a ton).
The crackpots who cook these schemes up don't bother to look at A) commercial aviation accident records, which show that most of them could not benefit from parachutes, B) military aviation records, which show that the record of ejection seats in accidents of the type that commercial transport aircraft would be involved it are not spotless. C) Actuarial tables, which show in crass economic terms how little gets paid out on those few terrifying events Compare that to the price per airmile of pressurized, ejectable capsules with parachutes. Pardon me?
Air events generate media buzz; the fact that most of what goes on is a non-event doesn't enter in.