Following an in-flight fire on an airplane chartered for his wife, Mitt Romney explains the fire triangle:
“I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney said. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.”
From the Los Angeles Times.
[As a former airline first officer, I appreciate the fact that the copilot got mentioned. It is also nice that no dog was strapped to the roof of this aircraft.]
Anyone have any good ideas of how we can address his concern that you can’t open windows on a plane?
I imagine the fire would have been very unhappy if they could have opened the windows…
Uh, Christopher, I did not post this in order that aeronautical engineers might benefit from Mr. Romney’s innovative thinking. Jets already have a cabin dump switch to depressurize the aircraft and, typically, a fresh air vent that can be opened from the dashboard. However, feeding a fire with oxygen is not usually a great way of putting it out.
[And on non-pressurized airplanes it is often possible to open windows. The checklist for an in-flight fire in such a plane does not include “open windows”.]
Yes, but what about submarines?
just another alpha male skating by with liberal arts education
and throws his ignorance at every one as badge of honor.
[quote]Yes, but what about submarines?[/quote]
No worries, we have a screen door for that 😉