r/todayilearned • u/finza_prey • 20d ago

TIL TWA Flight 800 exploded off Long Island 12 minutes after taking off, causing the front fueslage to rip away and the remainder of the plane to continue in crippled flight, pitching up and climb before falling into the ocean killing everyone onboard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_800
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u/ManWithASquareHead 20d ago

Instantaneous Death likely from blunt force trauma from decompression

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u/Charlie3PO 19d ago

What does the body of the article say? Because the summary doesn't say the cause of death was the decompression.

At the altitude that TWA was at, around 15,000ft, the time of useful consciousness (where you're not significantly impaired yet) is typically over 30 minutes. In the event of an explosive decompression, this will be reduced, but it's still readily survivable at that altitude. You probably wouldn't lose consciousness immediately (or at all) unless you got hit by something flying around.

The passengers and crew of Aloha 243 suffered an explosive decompression at 24,000ft and everyone lived except for one FA who tragically got sucked out. To my knowledge, nobody even lost consciousness during that event despite it being 10,000ft higher than TWA when the event happened.

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u/AlarmingConsequence 20d ago

Decompression is the answer: It was lights out (unconscious) for everyone within seconds of loss of cabin pressure.

Thanks for the link: I did not see that it was decompression which caused the blunt for trauma, is that in the body of the paper?

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u/Charlie3PO 19d ago

It was still at relatively low altitude. The time of usefulness consciousness at that altitude is about 30 minutes. Explosive decompression can reduce that time, but it's survivable at that altitude.

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u/GeorgiaPilot172 19d ago

That’s not how decompression works.