http://gawker.com/5945967/romney-doesnt-know-why-airplane-windows-wont-open-calls-the-closed-window-policy-a-real-problem

Romney Doesn’t Know Why Airplane Windows Won’t Open, Calls The Closed Window Policy ‘A Real Problem’

Affluent Imagineer Mitt Romney has some exciting new proposals for the future of airplane design, according to some remarks he made to the LA Times at a fundraiser in Beverly Hills Saturday Night.

Romney was speaking to the Times about his chevalier Ann's brush with danger last week, when a plane on which she was a passenger was forced to make an emergency landing after an electrical fire caused the cabin to fill with smoke.

"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."

Also very dangerous: installing roll-down windows in airplanes, the cabins of which depend upon precise levels of air pressurization to keep passengers and crew members from passing out due to lack of oxygen.

Who knew the Kingdom of Clouds could be such a frightening place?

(LA Times // Image via Getty)

LMAO! What an Einstein!

You tree huggers totally forget that the Romneys already tested how to make sure one gets enough oxygen when flying. Granted, they only did the testing with a dog and a car but hey, it's not far from there.

next he's going to make sure you can open the bedroom windows in submarines for that cruise value view and taste of salty....air.

the man is clearly no scientist.

Still, if it's an emergency and people are suffocating from smoke, there should be some sort of way to pump the smoke out. Since there's not, it might be best to open an window, even with the depressurization issue.

Yeah, SciFiGuy? What do you think would happen if you opened a window at 30k feet?

But if an airplane is on fire, it doesn't need to stay at 30,000 feet. What about lowering to 5,000 feet, and then opening a window?!

Y'all know I have no use for Romney but his statement wasn't a dumb one...but he was wrong. Some of the windows on aircraft can be opened and, when circumstances are right, are opened. The problem with doing it as a routine is that the plane or, at least part of it, must be depressurized, the fire has to located somewhere where opening the window won't simply pull it forward through the passenger cabin and they can't be opened at much above stall speed. The main issue during a fire on an aircraft, of course, is to keep the flight deck clear of smoke. Again depending on where the fire is, a window in the back of the plane may be opened in order to have a slightly higher pressure on the flight deck than in the passenger cabin.

If you want to wade through some stuff you can find some of it on page 12 of this link:

http://www.faa.gov/news/conferences/200 ... it-Cox.pdf

Open a window when there's a fire?
Hello, Fire. My name is Oxygen.

oskar576 wrote:

Open a window when there's a fire?
Hello, Fire. My name is Oxygen.

Probably less oxygen from an open window than from what is being pumped in when the plane is pressurized.

Couldn't say but fire consumes oxygen.
However, depending on the nature of the fire a sudden supply of propelled oxygen could conceivably cause a fireball or explosion.

Open a window at 30,000 feet and watch everyone escape the fire whether they want to or not.

my thinking is that depressurizing the cabin would be smarter during a cabin fire.

Do airlines, aeronautical engineers, fire marshalls etc. know that?
Just askin'.