What do readers think is the result of decompression via a bullet hole?

While I try to never say never, I think there's no such
thing...or damned near no such thing at least.

Yeah, one is reluctant to say "never" when random violence and complex
systems come together. The obvious counterexample to the
"convertible 737" that landed safely is the DC-10 that didn't do so
after loss of its cargo door.

However, with bullet holes, hopefully we're not talking about
catastrophic failures of large chunks of airplane.[1] And as for air
loss through bullet holes or even a failed window, consider WaltBJ's
calculation in light of the fact that you don't have to maintain
pressure in a holed cabin[2] *indefinitely* -- just long enough to
keep everybody breathing while you divert.


Finally, consider all this in post 9/11 perspective. We now know that
the bad guys' goal might be to destroy a ground target with the
aircraft. If the consequence of doing nothing is the loss of the
aircraft and all souls aboard anyway, PLUS great death or destruction
on the ground, that changes the sorts of risks you are willing to take
in the name of prevention.


If there is an armed marshal on board, you open the door not only for
cases of intermediate severity (e.g., plane crashes but does not
strike its target), but also for the best case -- he stops the bad
guys, maybe if you're lucky one or more of them survive (dead people
are hard to interrogate), and the aircraft makes a safe landing with
all the good guys still in one piece. And it strikes me as a better
than hand-to-hand by unarmed passengers -- which is still Plan B
should the marshal fail.


Hoping the deterrent effect will be enough,
--Joe

[1] I wonder how much of the popular imagination on this subject comes
straight from "Goldfinger," whose eponymous villain (if memory serves)
goes through the shot-out cabin window of a Lockheed Jetstar. I'd have
thought someone of his luxuriant specifications would've self-patched
almost anything short of complete loss of a door, but no. Whereupon
our hero and the lady du jour set some kind of record for egress under
duress. But I digress.

[2] I think a reasonable further assumption is that the amount of ammo
involved is modest. If there are a LOT of bad guys in one plane, or
they have guns of their own and can fort up for an extended shootout,
we have bigger problems than calculating the number of holes you can
poke in an airplane before somebody hits something important that the
flight crew can't settle with switchology.