"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message ...
wrote in message
om...
We all have seen the movies were one pistol shot or what not causes
the side of an airliner explode sucking the people, seats, etc. into
the void. What would happen in the reality? Let's assume the plane is
at the cruising altitude.

Not much unless a window was taken out and even then while
pillows , papers and magazines would be thrown about
people wouldnt be.

The extreme case is the Aloha airlines 737 which last about 20 ft of cabin
and
managed a safe landing, although some people were killed
on that one.

Keith

I believe there have been accident reports of much smaller holes than
that Aloha example where passengers were indeed sucked out. The
following sites, taken together, indicate a September 2001 accident
involving a Brazilian Fokker 100 involved one passenger being sucked
out through a window after two windows were taken out due to an
uncontained turbine failu

www.iasa.com.au/folders/Safety_Issues/ others/cowdied.html
www.pyramid.ch/airsafety_fatal.htm

Obviously a rare case, but it can indeed happen. Likewise, relatively
small fuselage holes caused by bombs have resulted in passenger
loss--ISTR that was the case over Greece a few years back?

Brooks