View Full Version : gassing the cabin?
One of the anti-terrorist suggestions being talked about is to release some sort of anaesthetic gas in the passenger cabin to disable hijackers.
How plausible is this, and is it possible that some innocent passengers could have allergic reaction to these gases?
darryld
5th Oct 2001, 05:56
That would only work once. Then hijackers would bring oxygen and they wouldn't have to deal with the pax.
Another thing, better make sure that cockpit door is very well sealed! What is it gets kicked in and an aircraft crashes because of this system. America is the land of lawsuits, I don't think you will find anyone willing to install such a system.
Just some humble thoughts...
Mycroft
6th Oct 2001, 03:47
Its not just a question of allergic reaction; the fatal dose for most anaesthetics is not much higher than the standard dose; thats why they have Anaesthetists/Anaesthesiologists to closely monitor the patient. In any forseeable situation in an a/c you could not knock out all the pax rapidly without killing some. As for anaesthetic darts the situation is as bad or worse; the reason why the animals shown anaesthetised by dart take several minutes to react is due to a compromise between having the animal rapidly unconscious and having it dead. Most anaesthetic gasses are also extremely flammable; there have been cases of patients exploding on the operating table.
Mac the Knife
7th Oct 2001, 22:37
Mycroft is basically correct about the feasibility and safety of adding any currently used inhalational anaesthetic agent to the cabin air. Really not on as I see it.
But before fellow PPRuNers start worrying about going off bang allow me to reassure you that all modern agents used are pretty UNinflammable - that is one of the reasons for selecting them! Saturated hydrocarbons that are extensively halogenated, such as halothane, chloroform, and Freons, are generally not flammable. Ether and cyclopropane are effective agents but are little used these days because of their flammability (and other things) - if ether were not so flammable it might still be used today. Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) is not flammable but is an oxidizing agent.
As for patients exploding - please - most of the very few explosion reports involve little bangs from inadvertent ignition of fart gas by a diathermy spark. Nobody has exploded, ever, though there have been burns.
This is not to minimise the danger of theatre fires however. Alcohol used for cleaning can ignite and all sorts of unexpected things burn in high concentrations of oxygen. And you can set light to things with a high-powered laser (I've done it). So we're all very careful.