How does a wet cloth really help (scientifically) to survive an airplane crash?

"Ann Marie Brest" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 18 May 2014 09:20:12 -0400, Robert Green wrote:

Who knows. Perhaps armed with this knowledge, your handkerchief and
bladder
might help save your life!

I'm going to try to remember to always have one of those little 8oz bottles
of water with me when I fly because I'd rather not have to depend on my
bladder to wet the handkerchief. (-: Eeeeewww

I knew, before this thread, that airplane cabin fires produce toxins but I
didn't know the fumes had large amounts of hydrogen cyanide gas. Some
people might remember that it's the primary component of Zyklon-B which was
used in the Nazi death chambers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyklon_B

Hydrogen cyanide was also used for jural homicide in the US for many years,
so it's kind of creepy to realize that our jetliners have the capacity to
turn into lethal flying gas chambers in the event of a serious fire. That
and the TSA "touching my junk" are two more good reasons to take the train
instead!

This thread has helped explain why I believe the missing Malaysia flight
might have suffered a cabin fire (that model plane had a known oxygen supply
hose defect that caused a very serious fire on the ground in another plane).
I have not been able to discover if that plane had the necessary repair work
done to eliminate that threat. In an oxygen-fueled fire, even things not
normally very flammable like Velcro burns. The citations here make it clear
that there's very little time to act in the event of a cabin fire.

If the cabin's filled with cyanide gas, death for everyone would occur in
very short order. The autopilot, since it doesn't breathe, would have flown
the plane until it ran out of fuel. We may never know the truth of what
happened to MH370 but this thread reinforces my belief that a cabin fire
could spread so quick and be so lethal that it could kill everyone on board
in a matter of minutes.

--
Bobby G.