We have all observed the air hostess instructing all the passengers the safety measures and the emergency protocols to be followed in case of contingencies during a flight. One of these protocols is how to put on the oxygen masks properly when there is an emergency. They emphasize on this fact to highlight its importance to the passengers. So many questions arise, like under what circumstances are these masks deployed, and how much oxygen do they contain?
Is it really about the safety of the passengers or is it an alternative way to intoxicate the passengers to keep them compliant when problems arise?
We might have had an idea about this from Brad Pitt’s character Tyler Durden from the movie “Fight Club”:
“ You know why they put oxygen masks on planes? Oxygen gets you high. In a catastrophic emergency, you’re taking giant panic breaths. Suddenly you become euphoric, docile. You accept your fate. It’s all right here[pointing towards an emergency instruction manual on a plane]. Emergency water landing — 600 miles an hour. Blank faces, calm as Hindu cows.”(Fincher, 1999).
No matter how much it fuels our inner conspiracy theorist, the reality is not that. Oxygen masks are kept for your own safety. To be precise, it’s all about the cabin pressure.
At higher altitudes the air is thin which results in lower levels of oxygen. So it is a clever way of keeping the cabin pressure at a level equivalent to an altitude of around 5000–8000 feet. The loss in pressure can prove to be a significant issue and has the potential of being dangerous if it happens suddenly, for example, due to a smashed window, the effective force can damage or destroy the aircraft.
If the cabin pressure falls below a certain threshold, the oxygen masks automatically drop from the emergency oxygen system located above the passenger seats. The passengers are advised to put on their masks until the aircraft has returned to a safe altitude.
According to Airbus, if a plane loses pressure at 40,000 feet, those on board have as little as 18 seconds of “useful consciousness” without supplemental oxygen (Smith, 2018). Once the euphoria is over, hypoxia (a condition in which the whole body or certain body parts are deprived of adequate levels of oxygen at tissue level) renders one unconscious and can cause brain damage or even death.
In the year 2005, Helios Airways Flight 522 veered off-course on its trip from Cyprus to Greece, but it was observed that the crew was ignoring all radio transmission. After many attempts at contacting the passenger jet, two F-16s were dispatched to intercept the rogue plane. As the F-16s’ pilots flew alongside the passenger jet they noticed that the captain’s seat was empty and the co-pilot was lying there motionless, and oxygen masks were dangling from the ceiling. The F-16 pilots reported that the passengers were dead. Hours later the autopilot being engaged the F-16s escorted the ghost plane until it crashed at a hillside in Greece. Later reports and autopsies stated that cabin pressure was set to manual and the crew was not able to pressurize the cabin. The autopsies also shed a light on the fact that the passengers were not dead at the time of the impact. Although nothing can be said on whether they were conscious. Though, some people believe that the aircraft was haunted.
Now let us shed some light on how oxygen masks actually work. Primarily the thing that we are supplied isn’t exactly oxygen and neither is compressed air. Oxygen tanks are rather bulky to be carried to be used in aircraft. So oxygen is supplied in a rather creative way inside an aircraft. In the panel above each seat, there is a mixture of chemicals which when burned release oxygen. Once the masks are popped the reaction begins and once it starts it cannot be stopped until all the initial chemicals are burned up which is around 12–15 minutes.
There might also be some byproducts of this reaction which you might smell. But, it’s better than lying unconscious due to lack of oxygen.
Thus, we can say that oxygen masks are actually useful rather than just being a tool to calm you down in times of disaster and it is really important that we follow the instructions given during our flights and not rub it off as unimportant.
Author: Taha Pathan
Poster: Ratnam Patel
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References:
1) The Flight Club, Wikipedia, last edited — 13th June 2020
