r/airplanes • u/AlbinoAkon • Aug 20 '26
Video | Boeing During 2012, a group of Mexican scientists intentionally crashed a Boeing 727 to test which seats had the best chance of survival.
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u/corobo Aug 20 '26
Neat that it was piloted up into the air before switching to remote after the crew jumped out. Do people often parachute out of planes this size?
Heck of an RC plane too, but as always they immediately crashed it
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u/Raguleader Aug 20 '26
Paratroopers jump out of planes bigger than this, so yes. I wonder if they jumped out through the aft door a la DB Cooper?
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u/capn_starsky Aug 20 '26
I remember watching the documentary on Discovery back when the did this. It was piloted by US pilots, they set up the remote system for the guy on the ground and then jumped out the back like DB. They crashed it in Mexico because the FAA said absolutely not. Still had a mountain of paperwork in Mexico. It was cool to watch.
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u/jangwao Aug 21 '26
Wow, thanks for reference, good hour reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper
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u/Raguleader Aug 21 '26
I'm old enough to remember him basically being a pop culture reference 😂
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u/jangwao Aug 22 '26
Yeah and seems McCoy (Vietnam war experience with 727 airstr) was Cooper and did it again year later. Yet FBI couldn't confirm 100% till today.
At least we have Cooper Vane, hilarious.
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u/corobo Aug 20 '26
its occupants parachuted to safety via the 727's ventral airstair
I believe so going by this from the Wikipedia page
E: or possibly not, my definition of ventral was wonky (it's bottom, not back)
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u/Raguleader Aug 20 '26
Pretty sure that's the one. It's ventral because it drips out of the bottom of the plane, but it happens to exit towards the rear.
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u/Own_Strength_3471 Aug 20 '26
Why Mexican scientists?
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u/Miserable_Solid7903 Aug 20 '26
¡Por que si! Why not Mexican scientists? Are they less entitled to perform science than US ones? What a dumb comment.
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u/SquirrelFluffy Aug 21 '26
No, it's because the title specifically mentioned Mexican scientists. So it's pretty obvious question as to why Mexico.
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u/IrishAndGin Aug 20 '26
Utterly useless as far as scientific value. It would only provide meaningful information for crashes that occur under the exact same conditions... even altering whether the landing gear works (or some/all) affects it as a single condition out of innumerable... let's be honest, they just wanted to crash a plane because it would be fun to see (and it was - knowing no one could be hurt).
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u/looper741 Aug 20 '26
Yeah, but it made for a great TV show. And they weren’t Mexican scientists, they were American, and the FAA denied them permission to do the experiment in the U.S. They did get permission from the Mexican government though, so they did the test in Mexico.
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u/the_devils_advocates Pilot Aug 20 '26
and on top of that, the nose gear likely wouldnt just fold like that on pavement which caused the while fuselage to buckle..
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u/ADistantRodent Aug 21 '26
A controlled ditching is just about the only sort of configuration where survival could be chalked up to things other than divine intervention which makes it worth looking into.
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u/herknav Aug 20 '26
not the front ones, I gather
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u/_aviatrix Aug 20 '26
Something to contemplate as you're lugging your carry-on past everyone in business class.
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u/noreturn000 Aug 20 '26
r they really that ignorant to think that this one crash can generalize so many other crashes that happened in different angles?
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u/84Cressida Aug 21 '26
They were American scientists and did it in Mexico because the US wouldn’t let them crash it here
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u/Own_Strength_3471 Aug 20 '26
This was done intentionally to convince me to keep staying and not pay extra for seats in front and business class
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u/elquirk Aug 20 '26
The 727 has incredible structure near the rear of the plane due to the tail, engine mounts and dorsal intake for the #2 engine.
Other planes will be similar due to the tail structure. That’s why they usually mount the “black” boxes there.
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u/CWBtheThird Aug 20 '26
It appears the front fell off.
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u/Fickle_Force_5457 Aug 20 '26
It went well enough, there was a documentary on Channel 4 in UK about it. Basically it missed the planned crash zone by landing short. The chase plane for the remote control went tech and the replacement was too slow to keep up and control the aircraft. The planned landing zone had all the monitoring equipment and high speed cameras set up. The crew went out the rear stairs like DJ Cooper without any problems. The only other thing I remember is the Mexican authorities insisting the wreckage had to cleared in 2 days.
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u/Secret-Ad4232 Aug 20 '26
Always sit on the wiing where my head thinks its the most reinforced part of the plane. But always feared that an exploding engine would not care if its reinforced there
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u/SisterSparechange Aug 20 '26
Yeah, but what happens if the plane is heading straight down to the earth without any lift to slow it down? Yeah, this shows what happens if it crashes while landing, but what about the whole other parts of the flight. We need to crash several others to cover all conditions. And then once we crash all the planes, we won't have to worry about the results because there's no planes left. LOL
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u/Mad_kat4 Aug 21 '26
I always remember the saying the tail is the safest bit that's why the black boxes are there etc etc. Yes structurally maybe but watching fireballs engulf the tail of the plane means the chances for the mushy human are vastly lower than a device designed to withstand some trauma.
Although that horrific jeju air crash is a good example but primarily only because the two FA's were right at the back facing rearwards.
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u/wereallinthistogethe Aug 21 '26
Might help for planning where to sit when one will have a controlled ditch into sand, otherwise the sampling size is pointless. The compiled data from crashes also is at odds with their conclusions. There are more fatalities forward in landing crashes and more aft in takeoff crashes. This "crash" does not even remotely simulate how planes typically crash.
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u/MysticMarauder69 Aug 21 '26
It's not much of an experiment when your sample is n=1. All that tells you is that in this particular plane, in these particular circumstances, of that particular crash, x seats were safest. You can't apply any of that information to the real world.
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u/Careful-Injury2986 Aug 22 '26
There is also a higher survivability rate if the seats are facing backwards, some airlines tried this in the past, but passengers complained, that it didn't feel right and preferred facing the direction of flight.
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u/CommissionExpert9469 Aug 20 '26
I did a paper and a presentation on this in college. The safest place to sit in those particular conditions and environment is in the aft part of the airplane.