Has anyone experienced 'low cabin pressure'?

purplecow1977

So anyone who is familiar with flying will know the general safety shpiel at the beginning of every flight. My question is, has anyone here ever experienced a flight where the cabin pressure was lowered and the oxygen masks were used?

fr336

No but it'd terrify me. (I realise this post is of no use sorry)

fr336

I know that, as always, you're in the very best hands in most cases aviation wise. And I'd be able to cope with just about any other potentially troublesome scenario occuring - but the oxygen thing freaks me out.

purplecow1977

Yeah tis not something anyone would enjoy I think! I was just wondering with all of the flights etc every day that surely it must have happened someone at some stage. Luckily touch wood I have had very smooth flights.

fr336

purplecow1977 wrote: »

Yeah tis not something anyone would enjoy I think! I was just wondering with all of the flights etc every day that surely it must have happened someone at some stage. Luckily touch wood I have had very smooth flights.

Even watching this scares me ha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2ctGKpU_B4

smurfjed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFETeBm3fuY

Fast forward to 1:29 if you don't have patience

Jimmy444

If the masks ever did come down at altitude and the aircraft did not start a descent fairly promptly I'd be on the call bell asking the cabin crew to have a word with the guys up front - make sure they are still awake . . .

(See Helios 522 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522)

flazio

I always wondered, if there was a medical emergency on a flight and the person required extra oxygen, could it be administered via the overhead masks?

murphaph

flazio wrote: »

I always wondered, if there was a medical emergency on a flight and the person required extra oxygen, could it be administered via the overhead masks?

Don't know if there's a "deploy masks" button but aircraft carry portable bottled oxygen anyway and this is what a patient would get if needed.

Skuxx

flazio wrote: »

I always wondered, if there was a medical emergency on a flight and the person required extra oxygen, could it be administered via the overhead masks?

There should be an oxygen bottle on board anyway AFAIK!!

flazio

That's good to know, you have better control of those cylinders anyway.

Boskowski

fr336 wrote: »

Even watching this scares me ha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2ctGKpU_B4

Easily scared? Looks pretty orderly and relaxed to me.

Skuxx

flazio wrote: »

That's good to know, you have better control of those cylinders anyway.

The oxygen from the drop down masks isn't from a cylinder of oxygen, its produced by an oxygen generator which is basically a chemical reaction. It certainly wouldn't be medical grade!

The flight deck oxygen comes from a tank containing pure oxygen!!

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murphaph wrote: »

Don't know if there's a "deploy masks" button but aircraft carry portable bottled oxygen anyway and this is what a patient would get if needed.

There is a "passenger oxygen mask" deployment switch in the flightdeck and yes, passengers who require oxygen for medical reasons would receive it from a portable oxygen cylinder. There are several of these onboard and cabin crew are trained to administer these to passengers.

andy_g

Also if the masks fail to deploy the Cabin Crew (CC) are trained to manually deploy them from the cabin itself.

Foggy43

Skuxx wrote: »

The oxygen from the drop down masks isn't from a cylinder of oxygen, its produced by an oxygen generator which is basically a chemical reaction. It certainly wouldn't be medical grade!

The flight deck oxygen comes from a tank containing pure oxygen!!

This is correct on some aircraft. The B737, B757 and B767 as far as I am aware. The B747-400 and B777-200/300 has cylinders for both flight deck and passenger cabin. It is not just one for each. There are several cylinders. In the fore and aft freight hold sidewalls. Passengers with known medical conditions buy their medical oxygen in advance. On the B747-400 their is an adaptor overhead the passengers, where an oxygen mask can be plugged in. BA's B767's have a Theraputic oxgen supply in the form off 2 cylinders that the crew can access and brind to a passenger if required.

Fagashlil

Jimmy444 wrote: »

If the masks ever did come down at altitude and the aircraft did not start a descent fairly promptly I'd be on the call bell asking the cabin crew to have a word with the guys up front - make sure they are still awake . . .

(See Helios 522 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522)

That's why (for us at least) if we don't have the emergeny descent call within a specified time, there's a decompression drill to be completed. Unfortunately, all of our drills have come about because of incidents such as the Helios one.

brandon_flowers

http://news.asiaone.com/news/relax/sq-flight-317-london-makes-emergency-landing-azerbaijan

Thread timing win.

fr336

Boskowski wrote: »

Easily scared? Looks pretty orderly and relaxed to me.

Oh that's just it - I'd be scared in such a situation anyway. Mind you I would also be outwardly relaxed - it just ranks very high on my ' the worst scenarios which could kill me on a plane' list :P

Wibbs

Yes many years ago. 1979/80 IIRC. 737, air France (I think) Flight over France and the plane dropped like a stone(or felt like that) and the masks popped outa the ceiling. Diverted to nearer airport. Never found out what the actual cause was. I was a kid so didn't really get flustered, got more excited than anything, but I do remember some people crying.

mickdw

brandon_flowers wrote: »

http://news.asiaone.com/news/relax/sq-flight-317-london-makes-emergency-landing-azerbaijan

Thread timing win.

That sounds disgraceful to me. To be aware of the 'mildly' leaking door seal and for it to be so bad that it affected cabin temperature and being noisy on takeoff suggests to me that it was quite a leak.

Munstermissy

2007 on a Ryanair flight to Stansted, scared the crap out of me and I am the worst flier.. We had an emergency descent and landing into Stansted. Only for the fact I had to fly back the next day I doubt I would have flown again. Was nearly tempted to get the boat home.

On the flight home the stewardess was going through the emgergency routine and one fella gave a shout out "it's alright love, we all know how to do that " . It lightened the tension as most of the passengers were on the same flight the day before.

eatmyshorts

Foggy43 wrote: »

The B747-400 and B777-200/300 has cylinders for both flight deck and passenger cabin.

Our 777's all have standard 22 minute overhead chemical generators for pax oxygen and a cylinder for flight deck oxygen.


There are 20 therapeutic oxygen bottles onboard our 777-300 's for pax medical use.

brandon_flowers

mickdw wrote: »

That sounds disgraceful to me. To be aware of the 'mildly' leaking door seal and for it to be so bad that it affected cabin temperature and being noisy on takeoff suggests to me that it was quite a leak.

Agree it doesn't sound great but I am usually skeptical of these people who give their "expert" opinion to newspapers. There was an Emirates one a few months back where some women said there was a deafening explosion and she had exaggerated the whole scenario completely.

Foggy43

mickdw wrote: »

That sounds disgraceful to me. To be aware of the 'mildly' leaking door seal and for it to be so bad that it affected cabin temperature and being noisy on takeoff suggests to me that it was quite a leak.

Yes quite a leak. Rumour control at LHR is saying that the door has failed. Must be a good rumour as the aircraft is staying in Baku until the affected door is changed. The removed door is to be examined by SIA and Airbus specialists.

Foggy43

eatmyshorts wrote: »

Our 777's all have standard 22 minute overhead chemical generators for pax oxygen and a cylinder for flight deck oxygen.


There are 20 therapeutic oxygen bottles onboard our 777-300 's for pax medical use.

Yes! I for got that 'built to airline requirements' bit. Do you have a supply of Cannular Oxygen Masks on board your B777's.

Jimmy444

Munstermissy wrote: »

2007 on a Ryanair flight to Stansted, scared the crap out of me and I am the worst flier.. We had an emergency descent and landing into Stansted.

When the masks came down did everyone do as they were told in the safety briefing and place the masks immediately over their faces, or did they sit there and wait until the cabin crew shouted at them?

Munstermissy

Jimmy444 wrote: »

When the masks came down did everyone do as they were told in the safety briefing and place the masks immediately over their faces, or did they sit there and wait until the cabin crew shouted at them?

Yes, was a very surreal experience, announcement over the intercom regarding the emergency, masks came down immediately and everyone scrambling to put them on. Plane went into steep emergency decent to get down to lower altitude. 2 of the stewardesses at the back were in tears and were crapping it as well (we are all human).

We were on the early flight and my mate was still half pissed from the night before And was gowling with the mask, I let a roar out to him "do you not watch the discovery channel, keep your f@@king mask on". He sobered up rapidly when we landed when he saw the emergency ground crews escorting us in on the runway, lol..