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- wildpig1234
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smoke inhalation protection
I was watching air crash investigation. there was a crash which everyone survived a crash but they were overcame by smoke inhalation. why is there no smoke inhalation protection masks widely available for at least the crews if not for some of the passengers near exits?
Re: smoke inhalation protection
This was a big topic several years ago. The debate missed an essential point, which is that the masks are basically-useless against carbon monoxide, which is the major thing that kills these folks. The EVAC-U8 smoke hood, which was recalled years ago, was the ideal product in these circumstances as well as in high-rise and similar fires, because it covered the head and used a catalytic conversion process to turn the monoxide into dioxide, which is harmless to people. However, it apparently couldn't be counted on to function, as I understand it. If it worked, it was great; if it didn't, UH OH. So DuPont, which had recently bought the company that made the thing, recalled all of them and took it off the market. I still have three on the shelf in my Manhattan hi-rise. I used to take them on flights; there was even an article in the Wall Street Journal where I was quoted about them (an unflattering article in which I was quoted out of context, but whatever; a lot of people bought smoke hood after it came out).
Re: smoke inhalation protection
wildpig1234 wrote:I was watching air crash investigation. there was a crash which everyone survived a crash but they were overcame by smoke inhalation. why is there no smoke inhalation protection masks widely available for at least the crews if not for some of the passengers near exits?
British Airtours 28M is worth looking at. I looked at the AAIB report from that accident - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... G-BGJL.pdf and pages 64-73 cover the testing of the smoke hoods, and p 173 recommends passenger smoke hoods.
Watch the Air Crash Investigation covered it, "Panic on the Runway" (S9E1).Iit covers some of that arguments for and against smoke hoods, but they were rejected.
AFAIK, smoke hoods were rejected because they're potentially complicated and we'd rather have people worrying about getting out of the plane, than worrying about putting on a smoke hood, then having to get out of the plane. Its does no good to protect someone from smoke inhalation if they die from burns from a fire. Also, not all levels of smoke inhalation are lethal.
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- skyhawkmatthew
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Re: smoke inhalation protection
wildpig1234 wrote:I was watching air crash investigation. there was a crash which everyone survived a crash but they were overcame by smoke inhalation. why is there no smoke inhalation protection masks widely available for at least the crews if not for some of the passengers near exits?
Smoke hoods are provided for crew.
Re: smoke inhalation protection
You need to be trained you use a smoke hood. In my company we have to demonstrate that we are able to don a smoke hood crawl through a smoke filed space (the cabin mockup which has smoke generators installed) and do some basic tasks (find the door handle etc.) - its not an easy task, its very uncomfortable to do anything while wearing a smoke hood. The smoke hoods used during training are training smoke hoods, they do not actually generate oxygen. I was told that the Oxygen generation in the "real" smoke hoods generate a lot of heat, which makes them even more uncomfortable. So they might actually do more harm than good when provided to passengers (could slow down an evacuation). I would also imagine that they are really expensive and airlines are rather hesitant to invest a lot of money on things that are not required by regulation/generate money. Unfortunately the best smoke protection currently available for passengers in most aircraft is breathing through wet towels (the O2 masks used for emergency descends won't help/are counter productive).
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- Starlionblue
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Re: smoke inhalation protection
As Flow2706.
I'll add that since smoke hoods contain pressurized oxygen, they are considered dangerous goods.
I'll add that since smoke hoods contain pressurized oxygen, they are considered dangerous goods.
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