YOU WERE IN AN AIRPLANE AND YOUR WINDOW POPPED OUT
If you were within the first few minutes of flight and still under 20 000 feet (7 000m), you’d probably be okay.
You could still breathe for a half-hour before you passed out at that altitude and the pressure difference wouldn’t be great enough to suck you out. It would be a little chilly and noisy, but as long as you’re wearing a jersey you’d be fine. If you’re at 35 000 feet (10 668m) and the window pops out, the plane rapidly depressurises. The first thing you’d notice is all the air getting sucked out of every orifice in your body. And because it’s humid air, it would condense and come out as a fog. That would happen to everybody, so the entire plane would be a thick fog of everyone’s body air. Gross. Fortunately that would clear up in a few seconds, because the air in the plane is getting sucked out of the open window. Unfortunately, it’s not a neighbour’s window, it’s yours, and that makes a big difference. If you were sitting just two seats away from the missing window, the wind would be rushing out of the plane with hurricane speed, but that’s still slow enough that if you were wearing a seat belt you’d be held fast. Unfortunately you chose the window seat, where the air would rush out at 482km/h – fast enough to pull you out of your seat even if you’re strapped in. You wouldn’t be sucked all the way out of the plane. That’s good for everyone in the plane. It would save you from a long fall and for everyone else your body would serve as a decent plug. It would slow the air’s escape and give people more time to put on their oxygen masks.
Your troubles would only be beginning. The first thing you’d notice would be the wind. The 965km/h gale blasting you would push you against the aircraft, wrapping you in a J–shaped figure around the side of the plane. The second thing you’d notice would be the cold. The temperature at 35 000 feet is -51°C. In that chill your nose would become frostbitten within a few seconds.
The third issue isn’t something you’d notice but is probably the most life-threatening. The air’s so thin you wouldn’t get enough oxygen to survive, only you wouldn’t know you were suffocating.
Your body can’t detect when there’s too little oxygen so you’d keep breathing but you’d have less than 15 seconds before you passed out – and four minutes before brain death.
The air’s so thin you wouldn’t get enough oxygen to survive