Emergency Descent over High Terrain

[GeeJay]

Hi

The airline I'm flying for just started operations to India and overflying Iran.
In case of Rapid Depressurization it is impossible to descent immediately to 10.000 Ft due to high terrain on the major part of the route between Ankara and Theheran.
Years ago, when flying for another operator, we were provided contingency plans per airways segment to reach safer zones.

My questions are: is it the company responsability to provide and publish those contingency plans?
otherwise, where could I find the relevant information??
We are using "Lido" charts (LH) and I could find nothing in the documentation.

Happy and safe landings.

[GlueBall]

If IMC, descent to your minimum safe altitude, that's all you can do to be safe initially. 10,000 feet is not a magic number of consciousness; people live at and fly into airports at higher elevations, like La Paz, Bolivia, which is 13,330' MSL. . . . Besides, you and your passengers have oxygen for at least 20 minutes, which is a long time to get you south towards lower terrain.

If you go to Google satellite maps you can run your curser over the terrain and it will tell you the elevations, much better than aviation charts. :ooh:

[None]

GJ,
When I fly over Iran we are provided tailored escape routes for each segment of the route. It is a continuing exercise at every route segment to select the appropriate "bail-out" route. The routes are listed in our Jeppesen Airway Manual, and are in our FMS database.
I imagine that our company pays a significant amount of money to have Jeppesen publish the routes for both the FMS and our Jepps. Even with these routes, we still carry additional oxygen bottles because of the length of time we would be "stuck" above 10,000. In some areas we can only get down to FL170 for a bit of time.

[GlueBall]

None: "...we still carry additional oxygen bottles because of the length of time we would be "stuck" above 10,000."
Never heard of carrying additional oxygen bottles when traversing the Zagros mountain range. For many years I've also been flying over terrain that's a lot higher.
But let's assume that you're at FL350 right smack in the middle of this mountain range, somewhere between Esfahan and Tabriz, whilst you are experiencing this rare event of cabin depressurization. How long do you think it would take you to reach lower [10,000'] terrain? If you're closer to Tabriz it wouldn't take you more than 15 minutes [350Kts descent] to reach the shores of the Caspian Sea, you could then follow the coast and land at GYD [Baku] which is actually below sea level; or if you're closer to Esfahan, it wouldn't take more than 15 minutes to reach Ahvaz, or the Gulf if you wanted to land at KWI [Kuwait].

[On-MarkBob]

The ANO Schedule 4 Scale L1 Part 1, refers to the requiremnts for the carriage of oxygen. In short, in a Transport aircraft, the pilots must be on oxygen above pressure altitude of 10,000 feet (cabin altitude). However, the pax can be at between 10,000 feet and FL130 for 30mins without oxygen. Assuming the masks all worked in the back during the decent, I see no reason why you could not level at FL130 for 30 mins (max, and including decent to FL100), so long as the pilots have sufficient for that time.