EVER wondered how high the plane you’re travelling in really goes? Air travel has evolved dramatically since the first airplane was invented in 1903.
But how high do planes fly and what happens if a plane flies too high? Here’s what we know…
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The short answer is that it wouldn’t be good for anyone on board.
According to the Smithsonian National Air And Space Museum, the plane would run into difficulty because the air becomes thinner the higher you go in the atmosphere.
They said: “If a plane flies higher than the altitude it was designed to fly it, it will be difficult to create enough lift to keep the plane up.
“Lift is created by differences in air pressure.
“Planes can’t just keep going up and up – at some point, the air will be too thin for them to fly.”
Commercial planes fly between 35,000 and 42,000 feet these days – which is upwards of 6.6 miles up in the air.
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When the plane gets too high, there is also insufficient oxygen to fuel the engines.
Peter Wheeler, a pilot, added on Quora: “Most aircraft are limited by engine power.
“The air is less dense at altitude, so the engine can suck in less and less air per second as it goes higher and at some point the engine can no longer develop sufficient power to climb.”
Back in 2004, Pinnacle Airlines flight 3701 was destroyed after flying to 41,000 feet, with two members of crew on board at the time.
Retired rescue helicopter pilot and aviation safety contractor Tom Farrier revealed: “Both engines failed, the crew couldn’t get them restarted, and the aircraft crashed and was destroyed.”
Tom added that the National Transportation Safety Board put the disaster down to several different factors.
These included “unprofessional behaviour” by the pilots and “poor airmanship”, as well as “failure to prepare for an emergency landing in a timely manner”.
Sun Online previously revealed that the passengers on Southwest Airlines flight 1380 were wearing their oxygen masks wrong when an engine exploded.
Banking executive Jennifer Riordan suffered fatal head injuries after the jet exploded on Southwest flight 1380 from New York to Dallas.
In a photo taken by passenger Marty Martinez passengers are seen wearing their oxygen masks over their mouths but not their noses – which is the incorrect way to wear them.
