What are the hazards facing a plane stowaway?

22 April 2014 Last updated at 01:28 Magazine Monitor A collection of cultural artefacts Looking into the wheel well of a plane on the tarmac in Wisconsin in 2007 A 16-year-old survived a flight from California to Hawaii, hiding in the wheel well. What happens to the human body under those conditions, asks Tara McKelvey.

Ninety-six people are known to have hidden under planes during flights around the world between 1947 and 2012, according to the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute in the US, and 23 survived.

During this five-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean, at an altitude of 11,600m (38,000ft), the teenager reportedly lost consciousness - unsurprising given the lack of oxygen supplied to the brain. "You'd get shortness of breath and then you'd just kind of doze off," says Peter Hackett, director of the Institute for Altitude Medicine in Telluride, Colorado. "It wouldn't be uncomfortable."

Continue reading the main story Lack of oxygen makes you unconsciousExtreme cold reduces heart functionDecompression sickness can be fatalLowering landing gear is another hazardBut more than 20 people - usually young - are known to have survived Another problem for plane stowaways is the extreme cold - as low as -62C (-80F). "In a cold state, the heart isn't pumping as much blood," says Hackett. "And what blood there is goes to the brain." At a certain point, individuals fall into a "poikilothermic condition", according to authors of a 1996 report for the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This is similar to hibernation, when the body needs less oxygen than normal. The heart rate and breathing slow down dramatically.

Stowaways may also suffer from decompression sickness, caused by an abrupt drop in surrounding pressure. Gas bubbles form in tissues and blood vessels and slow down the flow of blood.

Young people are more likely to survive. The authors of the FAA report said a "youthful, thin" individual has a better chance of enduring this than someone who is "heavy-set and older".

In 2000, a man survived a seven-hour flight from French Polynesia to Los Angeles, "spattered with oil from the landing gear and with his clothes ripped to shreds", according to the Los Angeles Times. And last year, a teenage boy endured a short flight in a wheel well in Nigeria. Others have died when the landing gear is lowered.

"I would not have predicted survival," says Michael Yaron, a professor of emergency medicine at University of Colorado at Denver, when asked about the boy in Hawaii. "Miracles happen. Lucky kid."

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Mini-sub continues search for plane

16 April 2014 Last updated at 08:18 The robotic submersible Bluefin-21 resumes its search, as Phil Mercer reports from Perth

A robotic submarine has continued its search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight on the seabed of the southern Indian Ocean.

The mini-sub was deployed late on Tuesday, but was forced to resurface due to a technical issue, officials said. It has since been redeployed.

The data downloaded from the mini-sub on Wednesday had "no significant detections", Australian officials add.

Flight MH370 went missing on 8 March with 239 people on board.

Air traffic controllers lost contact with it over the South China Sea while it was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Based on satellite data, officials believe it ended its flight thousands of kilometres off course, in seas west of the Australian city of Perth.

However, so far not a single piece of debris from the jet has been found.

'No detections'

On Monday, the US Navy's Bluefin-21 robotic submarine was sent on its first mission to search the sea floor for wreckage after signals believed to be consistent with "black box" flight recorders were detected.

Other ships and aircraft are scouring the search area for debris

But the drone exceeded its operating limit of 4,500m (15,000ft) and built-in safety features returned it to the surface. "No objects of interest were found," Australia's Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre (JACC) said.

The mini-sub was again deployed on Tuesday from the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield.

It was forced to resurface on Wednesday morning to rectify an unspecified technical issue and redeployed, JACC said.

"Initial analysis of the data downloaded this morning indicates no significant detections," it said.

The 5m-long Bluefin-21 can create a sonar map of the sea floor.

The US Navy has estimated that it could take the unmanned submarine from six weeks to two months to scan the search zone.

Continue reading the main story 8 March: Malaysia Airlines Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight carrying 239 people disappearsPlane's transponder, which communicates with ground radar, was switched off as it left Malaysian airspaceSatellite 'pings' indicate plane was still flying seven hours after satellite contact was lost24 March: Based on new calculations, Malaysian PM says "beyond reasonable doubt" that plane crashed in southern Indian Ocean with no survivorsSome 11 military planes and three civilian planes were also flying out of Perth on Wednesday to scour the Indian Ocean for floating debris.

Isolated showers are forecast in the search area with sea swells of up to 2m.

In another development, officials are investigating an oil slick about 5.5km (3.4 miles) from the area where the last underwater signals were detected.

An oil sample has been sent back to Perth for analysis, a process that will take several days, said Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who heads the JACC.

Australian officials have said they are confident they are searching in the right area for the missing plane.

But ACM Houston warned on Monday that the search of the sea floor could be a long, painstaking process that might not yield results.

Officials so far have no idea why the plane diverted so far from its intended flight path. Investigators are looking at theories including hijacking, mechanical failure, sabotage and pilot action.

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Mini-sub continues search for plane

16 April 2014 Last updated at 08:18 The robotic submersible Bluefin-21 resumes its search, as Phil Mercer reports from Perth

A robotic submarine has continued its search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight on the seabed of the southern Indian Ocean.

The mini-sub was deployed late on Tuesday, but was forced to resurface due to a technical issue, officials said. It has since been redeployed.

The data downloaded from the mini-sub on Wednesday had "no significant detections", Australian officials add.

Flight MH370 went missing on 8 March with 239 people on board.

Air traffic controllers lost contact with it over the South China Sea while it was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Based on satellite data, officials believe it ended its flight thousands of kilometres off course, in seas west of the Australian city of Perth.

However, so far not a single piece of debris from the jet has been found.

'No detections'

On Monday, the US Navy's Bluefin-21 robotic submarine was sent on its first mission to search the sea floor for wreckage after signals believed to be consistent with "black box" flight recorders were detected.

Other ships and aircraft are scouring the search area for debris

But the drone exceeded its operating limit of 4,500m (15,000ft) and built-in safety features returned it to the surface. "No objects of interest were found," Australia's Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre (JACC) said.

The mini-sub was again deployed on Tuesday from the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield.

It was forced to resurface on Wednesday morning to rectify an unspecified technical issue and redeployed, JACC said.

"Initial analysis of the data downloaded this morning indicates no significant detections," it said.

The 5m-long Bluefin-21 can create a sonar map of the sea floor.

The US Navy has estimated that it could take the unmanned submarine from six weeks to two months to scan the search zone.

Continue reading the main story 8 March: Malaysia Airlines Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight carrying 239 people disappearsPlane's transponder, which communicates with ground radar, was switched off as it left Malaysian airspaceSatellite 'pings' indicate plane was still flying seven hours after satellite contact was lost24 March: Based on new calculations, Malaysian PM says "beyond reasonable doubt" that plane crashed in southern Indian Ocean with no survivorsSome 11 military planes and three civilian planes were also flying out of Perth on Wednesday to scour the Indian Ocean for floating debris.

Isolated showers are forecast in the search area with sea swells of up to 2m.

In another development, officials are investigating an oil slick about 5.5km (3.4 miles) from the area where the last underwater signals were detected.

An oil sample has been sent back to Perth for analysis, a process that will take several days, said Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who heads the JACC.

Australian officials have said they are confident they are searching in the right area for the missing plane.

But ACM Houston warned on Monday that the search of the sea floor could be a long, painstaking process that might not yield results.

Officials so far have no idea why the plane diverted so far from its intended flight path. Investigators are looking at theories including hijacking, mechanical failure, sabotage and pilot action.

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VIDEO: Global solar-powered plane unveiled

The team behind the Solar Impulse project - a mission to fly around the world in a plane powered only by the sun - has revealed the plane in which the pilots will make their attempt.

Its predecessor, Solar Impulse 1, has already been flown across America, and stored sufficient power in its batteries to fly all night.

With a wingspan of 72m (236ft), Solar Impulse 2 is the width of a Boeing 747, but weighs about the same as a large car.

Its wings are covered in 18,000 solar cells to convert sunlight into electricity to power its motor and to store in its batteries.

The Switzerland-based team will make the attempt next year.

Andre Borschberg, one of the pilots and co-founder of Solar Impulse, showed BBC News the brand new craft and explained how it has been designed to allow a pilot to spend up to five days alone in the cockpit.

Video journalists: Victoria Gill and Jonathan Hallam

Footage of Solar Impulse 1 flight courtesy of Solar Impulse.

3,000mph hypersonic plane unveiled

Plans have been unveiled for a hypersonic plane capable of flying from London to Tokyo in 2 hours.

The plane would feature three sets of engine able to propel commercial flight passangers at over 3,000mph. Hailed as the successor to Concorde the plane would use a hydrogen and oxygen fuel mix. The snag however, is that this remarkable feat of engineering won't be available for another 40 years.

It will take only two hours to fly from London to Tokyo, be virtually pollution free, and promises to be no louder than today?s modern planes. There?s only one catch for prospective commuters ? it will be another 40 years before commercial flights take place.
 View: Full article |  Source: Daily Mail

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