"Marc J. Zeitlin" wrote in message
news_lJb.261887$_M.1216641@attbi_s54...
| "C J Campbell" wrote;
|
| ....... At the altitudes airliners fly the partial pressure of
| oxygen is too low to be absorbed by the bloodstream. You could fill
| the
| entire cabin with pure oxygen and everybody would still suffocate.
| Those
| little masks are not pressurized.
|
| If that were true, why would mountain climbers take little bottles of O2
| with them when climbing Everest (and other 20K ft. and up mountains)?
|

Airliners fly a lot higher than 20,000 feet. Those bottles are pressurized
and regulated as well. Climbers who use the oxygen usually only take a
breath or two when they need it. Although the masks are not very good, they
are better than the passenger masks on airliners. A lot of the oxygen is
still wasted, though. There are climbers who manage to make it up Everest
without any supplemental oxygen at all. Granted, they have had time to
acclimatize themselves, but even so it supports the idea that passengers are
not going to instantly die if the airplane depressurizes.