Aircraft’s windows are rounded
Can you breathe on a plane if a window breaks at 35000 feet?
Asnita Novi from Quora ask this interesting question.
A commercial airliner’s window will not break in flight because they have been redesigned after 2 commercial jets with square windows crashed about 70 years ago
Investigators into these 2 planes known as de Havilland Comet had discovered design flaws as stresses at the four sharp edges caused their square windows to be weakened.
As such, all the later jet planes were redesigned with oval-shaped windows to strengthen the structure so that the stresses could flow evenly around the windows.
Now you know why all commercial airplanes have rounded windows.
Cabin depressurization
Even though rounded windows are strong, there were cases where they have been damaged by explosives or external projectiles.
In 2018, a shrapnel from an engine punctured the window of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 and the plane depressurized like a leaking balloon.
If the size of the damage through the window is small, the depressurization will be slower than one with a larger hole.
Its severity would be felt greatest by those sitting near the affected windows and lesser to those located further away.
An explosive decompression would cause a loud bang with debris flying around, followed by fogging in the cabin. Small objects like phones and magazines or even people would be sucked out as had happened on the Southwest Airlines flight.
A decompression may be uncomfortable due to ears ‘popping’ with joint or stomach pain because of gas expansion. The greatest danger is hypoxia or low level of oxygen in your blood, a condition similar to the those who had experienced the serious Covid-19 infection. (Hypoxia had caused the crash of a Boeing 737 of Helios Airways in 2005 and possibly affected the passengers and crew of MH 370 in 2014).
If the plane depressurized rapidly due to a severe blow-out of the windows, breathing will increasingly be difficult at 35,000 feet. Due to this misfortune, you have only 30 seconds of useful consciousness at this height. This duration will be further reduced to 15 seconds if you are a senior citizen or moving around a lot.
The depressurization will cause the oxygen masks to drop down at 14,000 feet cabin altitude and you must immediately don the mask before you lose consciousness.
Conclusion.
To answer your question, you can breathe at 35,000 feet with increasing difficulty initially during the first 30 seconds but if you can have the mask on early, then you will soon recover to your normal condition
Meanwhile, the captain would commence an emergency descent to 10,000 feet where oxygen is no longer required. You can safely take off your mask at this point.
See more here – Window broken by shrapnel from a B737 engine