Mythbusters Explosive Decompression Experiment

The myth that Mythbusters was interested in was whether a single shot from a
handgun can cause an explosive decompression. The answer is no.

Deliberately firing three rounds into the shatter-proof plastic of an
airliner window probably would not cause an explosive decompression, either.
It would just make three holes in the window. Eventually you could probably
put enough holes in the window to cause it to break, but that might take so
long that it still would not cause an explosive decompression.

Nevertheless, Mythbusters tried on the show to simulate the effect of an
entire window blowing out using high explosives. While the air rapidly left
the fuselage, there was no "siphon" effect that would carry people or
objects of any size out of the fuselage.

An explosive decompression is almost instantaneous. There can be no "siphon"
effect. If the air is just running out of the airplane, there is a "siphon"
effect, but no explosive decompression.

Anyone who has been in an altitude chamber knows that when you create an
explosive decompression the occupants just sit there. They don't even feel a
breeze. There is a brief moment of fog as water vapor suddenly condenses out
of the air. During a slow decompression the occupants do not feel a breeze,
either, unless they are sitting right next to the valve.

A good vacuum cleaner should be able to generate 8 lbs psi if you block the
hose opening. When you take your hand off the opening (and, you will note,
you *can* take your hand off the opening unless you are some kind of
weakling) the vacuum cleaner does not cartoon-like suck up everything in the
room. Things more than a few inches away from the nozzle do not feel the
effect of the vacuum cleaner. Really, when you make a hole in the fuselage,
all you are doing is creating a little vacuum cleaner. Make the hole small
enough and it will whistle.

I think the people who worry about getting sucked out of an airplane by
decompression are the same sort of people who had childhood fears about
being sucked down by the bathtub drain or getting sucked up by the vacuum
cleaner. Such fears are irrational, Hollywood plays up to them, but they are
there nonetheless.