The concept of depressurising the a/c at altitude as the only method avail to extinguish a fire on the maindeck (apart from directing the FO to don the fire suit and grab one of the 3 X 16 lb BCF's we carry on the maindeck) is sheer folly. Ask yourself this, how many training videos have you seen of the effect to a pallett alight of depressurising the a/c? I have been asking to see one on annual refresher training since 1992 ............ still waiting.
In my humble opinion at best you will have a smouldering mass just waiting to reignite with the eventual descent into O2 rich air. Further, this hypothesis of mine does not take into account the CAO items on the same deck with ROX labels. Segregation distances are of little comfort to me.
Like flyer1015 I brief the 11 minute scenario, the look of terror on the FO's face when he realises this will entail a ditching somewhere near Shemya or the like, at night in huge fridgid seas is of interest. Tends to get them out of their comfort zone.
The discussion of parachute egress in a 744 is absurd.
Last edited by Rice power; 4th Sep 2010 at 23:49.