What really happened to Chuck Noland's plane

C J Campbell writes:

The load begins to shift and some of it punches through
the fuselage wall, causing an explosive decompression
and damaging several control systems.

Is this plausible in real life?

Also, aren't most of the control systems along the bottom of the
fuselage, such that punching through the sides would not damage them?
(And if the cargo is punching through the _bottom_ of the aircraft, I'd
really be interested in knowing how that can happen.)

The airplane descends rapidly to 10,000 feet as the pilots
fight for control of the aircraft.

How fast can this happen in real life? I guessed 35,000 feet for the
initial altitude, 10,000 feet for the final altitude. That's 25,000
feet in the space of a few seconds (because they aren't wearing masks
for very long, as I recall). 24,000 feet is 4 nm, and if they do that
in, say, 15 seconds, that's 16 nm per minute, or over 900 kt (and thus
above the speed of sound). Or am I missing something?

This descent is compressed in time to prevent the audience
from becoming bored with the scene.

Hmm. Maybe.

I can believe the load shifting and causing a decompression because I have
seen this happen to friends of mine. They lived, but were hospitalized for
six months.

I'm surprised the load could develop enough inertia to breach the
fuselage. Isn't everything packed in pretty tight, and tied down as
well?

Although Noland is alone on the island for years, he does not go crazy or
commit suicide.

He never has to trim his nails, either. Nothing to do with aviation,
but I couldn't prevent myself from noticing that in the movie.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
C J Campbell writes:

I can believe the load shifting and causing a decompression because I
have
seen this happen to friends of mine. They lived, but were hospitalized
for
six months.

I'm surprised the load could develop enough inertia to breach the
fuselage. Isn't everything packed in pretty tight, and tied down as
well?

Towards the end of the movie, he is told that they speculated there was an
explosion in the cargo hold. (Recall that this came out shortly after the
oxygen cylinder explosed and caused the crash in the Everglades in
Florida -- ValuJet or some such carrier.


Although Noland is alone on the island for years, he does not go crazy
or
commit suicide.

Recall that he made the rope to hang himself, but "chickened out".


He never has to trim his nails, either. Nothing to do with aviation,
but I couldn't prevent myself from noticing that in the movie.

He'd likely break them with all the manual labor he had to do -- but his
teeth were just a white when he got back as if he'd just got back from the
dentist.

On Wed, 5 Nov 2003 at 06:55:59 in message
, C J Campbell
wrote:
The first thing you have to understand about Hollywood is that the laws of
physics in most movies come from an alternate universe. Bullets flash when
they strike metal (and sometimes even wood!). Laser beams are visible for
all to see. People can outrun shock waves that are traveling at the speed of
sound and reach tiny crevices that will shelter them from all the buses and
vehicles being swept along by the shock wave.

I think you will find that in an explosion from something like an atomic
bomb, at first the shock wave travels _much faster_ than the 'normal'
speed of sound because of the very high pressure behind it and the very
high temperatures. It certainly won't travel much slower as it sometimes
appears to in movies!
--
David E-Mail reply to

David writes:

... at first the shock wave travels _much faster_ than the 'normal'
speed of sound ...

All shock waves travel faster than sound ... that's why they are shock
waves.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
David writes:

... at first the shock wave travels _much faster_ than the 'normal'
speed of sound ...

All shock waves travel faster than sound ... that's why they are shock
waves.

I'm shocked...SHOCKED....

Uhhh...it's just a movie, eh?