What exactly happens in a plane crash?

Ok from time to time we hear of plane crashes. I was wondering what the passenger perspective is inside of the plane when it goes down. For example, if the jetliner does a nose dive into the ground, when it hits, do all of the people get flung forward? Does the cabin just crush like a can? Does everything just go black?What happens inside of the passenger cabin? Please explain in detail.|||Like many complex systems, it depends. In this case it depends how strongly built the aircraft is. For most aircraft they will just crush like a soda can, but they won't stay together, so they will shatter and the passangers, seats and all else will pile into the ground at high speed. The bodies probably won't remain intact and the parts will be scattered amongst the wreckage just like everything else.





Does everything just go black? Well, the lights don't go out until the bulbs, wiring or power supply are destroyed. But crashing vertically at 600kts you will cover the last 300 feet, around the length of the longest planes, in 1/3rd of a second. When you come to a sudden stop at the end your earthly awareness will cease, you will no longer be able to sense anything, no light, no dark, no passing time. Unless there is an afterlife, in which case you will experience whatever that brings.





To answer the more general question, it depends. In some crashes the passangers won't be aware that there's an issue until they wake up in the afterlife. In others they'll be bounced around the place until the aircraft comes appart and they enter a brief and unexpected freefall.|||This is a wide open question, what happens depends on what caused the crash. I can't really answer your question specifically, but I do want to clear up some misconceptions:





Most airplane crashes do not involve nose-dives into the ground at 600 miles an hour. Unless something has gone SERIOUSLY wrong with the structure of the airplane or the flight control systems, the airplane will be controllable, and therefore, the pilots will do whatever they can to "land" the airplane at the slowest possible speed in the best possible place, although sometimes that place is in the water, forest, whatever. For example, in the case of a failure of all engines (like running out of gas), the airplane is perfectly controllable, and is now just a glider. Probably not a real great glider, but it's controllable anyway.





In the more likely case of something happening during takeoff or landing, the airspeed is also on the slower end of things. An airplane that can go 600 mph at altitude is only going 150 mph or so during takeoff and landing, and if given the option, the pilots can slow it down much more than that if they know they are going to have to make a forced landing (a nice way to say "crash").





The key to survivng an airplane crash is getting away from the airplane as soon as you can, because it's likely to be going up in flames.





An any rate, airline travel is still a rediculously safe way to fly, it's just that when bad things happen, everybody hears way too much about it. Imagine if every fatal car crash was national news. You'd never get in your car again.|||I died in a plane crash last week. The answers are Yes, Yes, No and It isn't very pleasant.|||The cabin crumbles with all the g-forces.


People are killed by the pancake.


The fuel explodes and the fire comes.


The cabin is burned to ashes.


Rescue comes and puts out the fire.


Investigation begins.


The black box search begins.|||It primarily depends on the angle of the ground strike. Just as anything that stops suddenly, the mass of the object wants to continue driving forward. Anything unattached within, i.e. passengers, will continue forward until striking an immovable object, at the same rate of speed at which they were intitially moving.





yes; yes; no, unless it's night or into water; not much, once everything stops moving. Fire is unlikely, unless you hit the ground obliquely, or are on a movie set.|||Plane crashes are unique, so the answer is different in each case.





Look at the differences between American Airlines #965 and Alaska Airlines #261. The passengers on American 965 were flying at night, in complete darkness, and probably had no warning. Most died instantly without knowing or feeling anything. On the contrary, Alaska 261 passengers were flying upside down and being thrown violently for minutes before they hit the ocean. But, nobody survived Alaska 261 and there were four survivors from American 965.





So you see, there really is no right answer to your question.