This Is What Happens To Your Body If You Die In A Plane Crash

[Richard Cranium]

 

[Cliff Ramsdell]

My favorite flying story.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

[Sahara]

Yup, if you can find it look up the Kobe Bryant autopsy report. Yuck.
The human body isn’t designed to go from a hundred miles an hour or more to zero in the distance of a foot or two.

 

[Big Bad Dad]

Well, that was a cheery video.....

 

[Cojohnso1]

Yup, if you can find it look up the Kobe Bryant autopsy report. Yuck.
The human body isn’t designed to go from a hundred miles an hour or more to zero in the distance of a foot or two.

Very true. Our bodies are designed to absorb impacts of speeds that we can run. So about 13 MPH. As speed increases? Survivability falls.

 

[wahya]

Somewhere I read that the position that would tell you to get into, actually was more likely that you would break your neck and die, thus the payout was a one time thing instead of endless medical treatments and hospitalization. Or so I’ve heard.

 

[super-bee_ski]

I flew in one for 18 years (USAF)
As did 69@100 and Cr8crshr

 

[XS22J8R]

I survived a plane crash, though not unscathed. The NTSB investigator said the field the Cessna slid to a halt in was remarkably level which was very fortunate for me, as he said that planes sliding to a halt in an accident rock and sway so much until they come to a halt, that pilot and passenger necks often get snapped, and/or heads get beaten against the interior of the plane with enough force to kill or cause major brain injuries.
When there are 2 pilots in a cockpit, the investigators can determine which pilot was at the controls by the damage to their ankles and tibia and fibula. The pilot tenses up his lower appendages against the rudder pedals during a crash in a way that causes an identifiable bone fracture pattern.
I also suffered a severe burst fracture to the L5 vertebrae from the "hard landing".
Modern cars are designed with an amazing amount of features to prevent death and injury in accidents and planes are not.
I started flying a Cirrus airplane a few years ago, which is one of very few clean sheet new design general aircraft to be released in the past 50 years. The designers did incorporate a number of features in the Cirrus to enhance survivability in crashes. A ballistic parachute system, seats and main landing gear designed to absorb a large G vertical impact without damaging the spine like happened to me, and a offset yoke which was designed as a result of their studies showing many pilots and front seat passengers receive serious thoracic injuries from impacting yokes in plane crashes.
But in the end, I guess you could say if man was meant to fly we would have been born with wings!

 

[chtampa]

I have seen stunts by Super Dave Osborne and this is not true.

 

[gdrill]

I heard they tell you to tuck your head down so it stays with the body!

 

[Carcinogen]

One time a FAA accident inspector stopped by the shop and he had a book of accident pics.

Most memorable was a seat that have been ejected with a spinal column still strapped in.

Body is mostly water that will explode with enough force.

 

[BeepBeepRR]

I just look at it like what a bug looks like when it hits your windshield.. 60 to 0 instantly... Yuk

 

[peabodyracin]

I was stationed at the San Francisco International Airport from early 71 till roughly mid 1973. It was a Coast Guard Air Station. We had 4 helo's plus C-130 and Hu16 fixed wing. We always maintained a ready crew for a helo and a C-130, but the helo's usually got the call when there was a crash, boat in trouble, accident, etc. because it made it possible to retrieve remains or injured people quicker than could otherwise be accomplished.

I was called a plan captain on the helo's. The 1409 was my aircraft. The title just meant you were capable of working on/repairing most anything on the bird other than electronics. They wanted this capability in case there were mechanical issues that forced you down somewhere. Then they could just send you parts to hopefully effect repairs and get going again. A buddy of mine, named Walt, was a plane captain on a different helo.

The ready crews would rotate of course, around the clock. Poor Walt got more than his share of gruesome calls. Two in particular stuck with me: a small commuter passenger plane took off from the coast up near the border with Oregon, had trouble, clipped a large smokestack and then cartwheeled into the ocean. Walt was there for a day plus, retrieving body parts from the ocean.

His second one was a small plane that took off in the bay area and crashed into the water shortly after. Suffice it to say the pilot got sliced and diced by the control panel. Poor Walt was a real quiet, sincere, easy going guy. These two really affected him. He was quite rattled for a long time after.

My worst was a guy, his wife and 4 kids (small kids sitting on the laps of the bigger ones in the back seat) took off late evening from the Bay area heading East, no flight plan, the pilot not IFR rated. They flew into the side of a mountain in the dark. The two bigger kids had the smaller ones absorb much of the impact and thus were somehow able to find their way down the mountain in the middle of the night to get help. We got called to haul everyone off the mountain. The terrain was so steep we couldn't even land.

The plan hit so hard the engine was between the two front seats. The vertical stabilizer had swung up in an arc and punctured the cabin ceiling. Had those two kids not done what they did I don't think they'd have even found the plane for weeks, since they had no idea where the clown was heading.

I often though we should have left the guy up there. You can't fix stupid.

 

[Budnicks]

The best part is, the Ron White video...

& yes you can't fix stupid

I used to fly almost every week,
I logged like a million miles (exaggeration) for work
or going to the races, across the country (had drivers towing my car/truck)
I was always going to or from
or sitting in a plane or in a damn airport constantly
I hated it, I still hate it

I don't mind the flight part, I actually enjoyed most of that

but the rest sitting & waiting always, sucks ***

I'm glad that part of my life is way behind me

I had a couple of 'close calls' on smaller planes/charters
one landing plane lost a wheel
& one in turbulence, I flew/got tossed out of my seat
both in Alaska
there would be no surviving that, going down in the wilderness
or crashing into a mountain even worse
neither incident was fun
just something to talk to my buddies about, afterwards

 

[Bighouse]

I’ve flown in a couple small airplanes with a friend of mine out of the local airport. It was fun, but my first take off all I could think of was I felt like I was going waaaaay too fast in a Volkswagen Bug. And then up it went.

 

[Cojohnso1]

In 1982 I was on a flight from Minneapolis to Miami. While still at the gate my then girl friend asked if the left engine is supposed to be spitting a little oil every 10 sec or so then getting sucked into the turbo fans of the DC-10. I Said "It might be to lubricate the front fan blades. But knew to keep an eye on. We were just starting to taxi out when I looked and that engine was now peeing oil every 5-10 seconds about 10'. I called the flight attendant over and said. "I'm not an jet engine mechanic. But I'm very sure it's not supposed to be doing that?" She looked and said "They are aware, but nothing to worry." With a very concerned and lying look on her face. She ran to the cockpit and the plane stopped then immediately. We unloaded the aircraft not even moving back the 100' to the gate. By the time I exited on the outside staircase? They had that engine off the plane.

I have wondered if her first observation and enquiry to me. Then my notification to the flight crew possibly saved all our lives?

 

[Cojohnso1]

If God wanted us to fly? He wouldn't have made the "Wing!"

 

[69a100]

The human body wasn't designed to go any faster than like 8 MPH. Even without the crash, it has something to do with the "G" forces and its effects on the brain. It's not the crash that kills you, it's the "rapid deceleration syndrome" that take's you out!

 

[dadsbee]

It's amazing what you can survive, point it between two trees and take the wings off... or in the case of one of my camp buddies he hooked a single wing tip, got turned around perfect 180* and then went through the woods backwards in a C185. Being pushed into their seats saved all three of them and they walked out of the bush 1/2 mile, one a woman in flip flops and a bathing suit. We picked them up at lake shore in our float planes. They're just lucky I was in the air with my Daughter, coming out of a back lake at 5:30 PM and heard him, or they'd been 35 miles from bum f nowhere for the night...

 

[Ron H]

Had to fly a lot years ago, mostly large aircraft; but a few times it was small planes. One occasion in a single engine chartered to fly across Lake Michigan to Kalamazoo and back out of a small airport in Milwaukee. There were 4 of us plus the pilot. It was winter and the weather was deteriorating as we headed back to the airport for the return flight. We boarded and I sat in seat next to the pilot. The wind was rocking the plane and heard the tower alert the pilot of reported wind shears. He had a grimace and I was thinking maybe we weren’t going to take off. We were given the nudge to take off. As we headed down the runway when the wheels left the ground the plane took a hard thrust to the left at an angle off the remaining runway. It was cloudy so quickly lost any visibility and the plane was icing up like nuts.

Once at the flight altitude, it was wildly rough-bumpy; felt like we were dropping a 100 feet and back up. Well we had a cooler of beer set beside me and the co-workers I was with were downing them fast asking me to hand another can back to them. The pilot radioed to get the ok to change his altitude and that adjustment helped. Geez that flight felt like forever. Then came the descent in the thick clouds and it got rougher bumping like crazy. The clouds were low waiting to see the ground, finally broke through and looked like we were only a 100 feet from the ground. My view – the plane was approaching the runway at a sharp angle fighting the wind. Wondered how the hell the pilot was going to get it straight enough to land without cartwheeling. He managed it and tell ya, he was spent giving out a long exhale once we were on the ground. We gave him a huge applause. After that, none of us were quite ready to drive home before we had another couple cocktails at the airport bar.