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Fri 1 May, 2015 11:54 am
When a plane crashes as recently occurred with a Germanwings airplane, what is the cause of death of the plane's passengers?
@gollum,
Accident (this is for insurance purposes), I suspect.
@McGentrix,
McGentrix-
Thank you.
Yes, surely the passengers are subjected to sudden deceleration. But how does that cause death?
The first law of motion states that a body in motion tends to remain in motion. So as a plane hits say a mountain and its speed instantly drops to zero. Therefore the speed of the passengers drops to zero. Does the brain then smash against the scull causing death?
@gollum,
Yep. The brain. Most other internal organs suffer extreme and often fatal damage when they are displaced inside the body.
In a high speed collision with something solid, e.g. the ground, a mountain or building, the plane disintegrates and so do the passengers. After the Germanwings accident, the ground teams said they did not find any human part "bigger than a briefcase". This is typical.
@gollum,
gollum wrote:Does the brain then smash against the scull causing death?
The plane breaks into lots of small pieces of metal and plastic. The passengers and crew are cut to pieces; squashed; minced.
@gollum,
I think it's extreme blunt force trauma.
@rosborne979,
Can also be fire or smoke inhalation.
If the body is intact, you can duplicate the result that occurs inside the body by getting a tub of jelly and upending it on the floor . The same happens to internal organs, they smash against bones and muscle which will deform temporarily . If the deformation is not temporary, then the body flies apart . About 5 g's over a second will knock you unconscious, about 15 g's will kill your brain, and around 50 and up g's will start to tear apart the body . For a fraction of a second the body can withstand considerable force, possibly 40-50 g's but about a second is the limit to go from transitional force to the actual force . Anymore than a second and less force may do the same as higher forces .
The more clogged your arteries and veins are, the more g force you can handle as the basic problem is fluid movement which drags tissue with it .
@Ionus,
Ionus-
Thank you.
First, I get a tub of jelly and place it on its side so that it is standing vertically.
What do I do next to duplicate it?
@gollum,
It was a somewhat tongue in cheek statement but if you want to, get a container of jelly and drop it upside down so the jelly hits the floor with the container on top . The more full the container is with jelly the better the demonstration . The shock waves will shatter the jelly .
@Ionus,
Ionus-
Thank you.
When a jet lands on an aircraft carrier, I believe an arresting wire is used to force it to decelerate very quickly.
Why don't the internal organs deform?
@gollum,
They are rather close to the limit . If a car crash took that long to stop, most of the passengers would survive too .