Stefan says:

# 10: Airbus. Designed to survive a crash

pedro says:

“Your seat cushing may be used as a flotation device”

Ever heard that one on the pre-flight demo? I have.

Not to mention there seem to be quite a lot of what looks like seat bottom floating around the plane as debris.

natefrog says:

#5, Ralph;

Typical foreigner bullshit to make something good look bad because it is the U S.

[Citation needed]

pedro says:

#20 Not much use on this case, would they?

In any case, I think you can e-mail mythbusters to see if you could also use your seat bottom as a parachute “device”

I already imagine the crash test dummy, hands up, grabbing the seat while hopelessly falling down.

smartalix says:

Frankly, I’d rather have a life jacket than a chunk of foam.

pedro says:

#25 Cannot be against that.

Mark T. says:

The slide IS the raft. From the looks of it, the aft slides could not be used because the door was below the water line and could not be opened. Opening the aft doors to release the aft slide/rafts would have allowed water to gush into the cabin. Bad idea.

I am amazed that the thing floated as long as it did. The wings were likely still completely full of fuel. I suppose the center fuel tank (between the wings and under the cabin floor) was at least halfway drained as it is usually the first tank to be consumed by the engines during takeoff and ascent. That probably aided in buoyancy to keep the doors above the wing high enough out of the water.

Apparently, there is a “ditch switch” that the pilot can toggle that apparently closes various vents and ducts. This would have kept water out of the ECS system for a little extra time and is supposed to keep the aircraft buoyant longer.

Landing with the gear doors closed probably allows some air pockets to get trapped in the wheel wells, also adding to buoyancy. Just a guess, though.

As for the wing slides, the A320 is supposed to have them. Check out the flight safety card here:

http://tinyurl.com/8qu3ar

I don’t know why the didn’t inflate.

Luckily, the plane floated with wings level. Otherwise, all those passenger may have gone swimming. Some could even have died of hypothermia before being picked up if that happened.

pedro says:

#37 You mean nobody took their laptop with them?

Mister Mustard says:

>>And exactly where are those yellow life vest
>>you are supposed to put on in case of a water
>>landing?

I can’t think of a domestic flight I’ve ever taken where “yellow life vests” were an option. Every time I get on a plane, they say “in the unlikely event of a water landing, your seat cushion will serve as a flotation device”.

Mr. Dvorak must be thinking of flights he’s taken with John Travolta, or Adam Curry.