Ask Captain Lim

Dear Captain Lim,

Your site is amazing. The information that you provided very much helps. I have a question about the guy who apparently got sucked out of the cabin due to the rapid depressurization.

What would have happened to that person? Will he be lost in space forever without falling onto the earth? or would he eventually fall off sometime? If so, how long it takes?

Thanks,

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

As regards to the guy who was sucked out of the cabin due to the rapid depressurization in Aloha Airlines Flight 243, I believed he did not survive the misfortune. Apparently, he was declared as lost in flight because a sea search was unsuccessful in recovering the body. He was in fact a flight attendant and was standing in the cabin of a Boeing 737 whereas the passengers were all secured by their seat belts. According to the passengers on board, the flight attendant was immediately swept out of the cabin through a hole in the left side of the airplane fuselage.

He would have certainly fallen off to the earth (and not lost in space forever!). During the fall, the body would have reached a terminal velocity of about 125 miles per hour or about 11,000 feet per minute. As the aircraft was at 24,000 feet when the depressurization occurred, it would have taken about 2 minutes and 15 seconds to reach the ground.

The effect of the impact would be like driving a car at 125 mph and crashing it into a solid wall!