Kevin Hayward
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2014–2020
6:51 · 398K views · Apr 1, 2010
Footage of FAA altitude chamber hypoxia training for pilots in which a participant passes out from oxygen deprivation. It shows how quickly and subtly cognition fails at altitude.
Linked as a vivid demonstration of how fast hypoxia incapacitates people, often without them noticing.
3 comments from Hacker News
I did a flight safety training course and the video clips of people right before they pass out from anoxia are entertaining and educational. Here's one from the FAA: this video
Watch this video[1] of pilot training in an FAA altitude chamber to see the effects of oxygen deprivation. [1] - this video
Commercial pilot here, while possible (almost everything is possible at this moment), I don´t think it was a suicide, they even say at the article that if this is a suicide it´s inconsistent with previous cases where the pilot just pushed the controls and dived to the ground. Why it´s too complicated?: -To kill everybody via hypoxia you don´t need to climb to Flight Level 450 (45k feet). FL350 works just as good, the difference in the time of useful consciousness is 10 to 15 secs (from 35' at 350 to 15' at 450), not worth the trouble of climbing and possibly stalling the plane. After that time you either pass out or you start not knowing what you are doing. -You don´t need to turn and fly for 6+ hours to random points, just keep your flight plan and selected altitude and the airplane will behave like the Helios (flying till the end of the flight plan and then holding till running out of fuel) -Why flying for 6 hours if you want to suicide? passenger oxygen only works 15 min (time enough to reach a breathable altitude), the portable oxygen tanks for the auxiliary crew will work for 30 min more or less.. Look at this video of hypoxia test at 25k feet to see how fast you pass out this video -why disconnect the communications? you only need to ignore them. why bother with the ACARS? So far all the things are more consistent with a hijacking done by someone with some knowledge of flying a plane (like asking pilots to shut down coms, climbing descending, turning, introducing a waypoin