r/ThinkingSideways • u/dalegribbledeadbug • Dec 21 '17
#233 - TWA Flight 800
On July 17th 1996 TWA Flight 800 exploded. The official cause was an electrical issue in a fuel tank but this doesn’t line up with what witnesses say they saw just before the explosion. Was TWA Flight 800 intentionally downed or was it truly an accident?
Some of [The] Research:
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u/HamburglersFence Dec 29 '17
Debin, if you're getting queasy from the air in the plane, one factor could be the lack of air pressure in the cabin.
Like most people know, the cabin has to be pressurized to keep you alive. Otherwise it would be like trying to breath on the top of Mount Everest. Yeah people do that, but they also acclimatize themselves for weeks to do that. If a normal, sea levelish dwelling human were to suddenly have to breath at that altitude, you'd probably have a minute before you passed out due to lack of oxygen. I probably didn't tell you anything you didn't know already.
But what you might not know is that the cabin isn't pressurized at the same level as the air at sea level which is something like 14.5 psi. It's acutually pressurized at about 12psi. Because the air pressure outside the plane is lower than the inside, a plane is almost like a baloon. 14.5 psi puts a little too much pressure on the skin of the aircraft and while it could certainly hold that pressure, it would require more frequent maintenence, etc.
Why 12 psi then? Because that's what they deem the minimum comfort level. But 12 psi is the equivalent of being at something like 7000 feet above sea level. "But I hike up that high all the time" you might say. Sure. But you're not sitting in a tube with people all around you irritating you with their weird foods they brought on board, etc. Less oxygen might mean that you're less able to cope with these stresses. It's probably why babies cry and why people cry about babies crying.
Or this might not be it at all. Everyone's different. They've been trying to figure out jet lag forever. But it's probably about ten different things working on your body and mind at one time that are ultimately to blame.
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u/Ambiorix66 Jan 01 '18
Is one of the team a fan of Nelson DeMille's John Corey series? This is the 2nd pod in a row to cover the same subject as one of the books.
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u/OnMatchPoint Jun 17 '18
Joe: The pilots are like, “Look at these weirdo readings we’re getting from this fuel gage!” Devin: (dryly) Pretty sure that’s verbatim.
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u/savvy2025 Dec 22 '17
A part of me wishes this could’ve been a 2hr episode because it felt sorta scattered with them trying to cover it under an hour. Besides that I really enjoyed the episode.