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iddibihai writes:
i keep thinking of the james bond scenes from goldfinger, one of my fav movies, 'bout ms. p galore with a large calibre revolver in flight, and sean warns her that shooting him at altitude would be disastrous for her and the aircraft
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Y'know, I wonder if the general public realizes that most commercial airliners are fairly "leaky" as is. Sure, the cabin is constantly pressurized, but it nowhere near hermetically sealed.
Furthermore, I wonder if they realize that the a single bullet hole, or even a dozen or more so, would not cause the drastic Hollywood-fictionalized rapid depressurization--with whole portion of the fuselage tearing off and passengers getting sucked into the void.
Anybody remember a few years back the Hawaiian Air--or was it Aloha Air--passenger jet that had a significant portion of its fuselage torn away (with some fatalities) and yet remained air worthy enough to fly and emergency land?
I heard an interview with the heads of the one of the Airline pilot's groups, saying that the myth of a catastrphic bullet-penetration-caused depressurization was one they intentionally promoted over the years merely to deter terrorists and hijackers.