How Oxygen Masks Brought Down a Plane

The same safety feature that gives you oxygen during an airplane emergency caused a plane to crash in 1996. How did something meant to keep you safe end up killing over 100 people?
#planecrash #oxygenmask #oxygengenerator

You might also like:
How can fertilizer explode?

Chemtrails

What could an explosion on the sun do here on earth?

How did climate change help turn the sky orange?

What causes auroras (and where you should see them)

Credits:
Executive Producers:
George Zaidan
Hilary Hudson

Producers:
Elaine Seward
Andrew Sobey
Darren Weaver

Writer/Host:
Alex Dainis, PhD

Scientific consultants:
Michelle Boucher, PhD
John Graf, PhD
Brianne Raccor, PhD

Sources:
Background on the disaster

Amount of oxygen at 30,000 feet

Size and shape of chemical oxygen generators

Canister components

Decomposition reaction

NTSB accident report

How airplane oxygen generators work

Why the O2 mask might smell smokey

The role of barium peroxide in chemical oxygen generators

Amount of oxygen generated

Oxygen candle use on submarines and ISS

FAA Accident lessons learned

Contractor found guilty, mechanic still on the run

Oxygen jar experiment

Fire melted aluminum components

Safety regulations changed after the crash

[ACSReactions]

A totally different oxygen safety feature caused a Qantas airlines accident in 2008! An oxygen tank designed to be used in the cockpit exploded and ripped a hole through the side of the plane, forcing an emergency landing. Thankfully, everyone made it back to the ground safely.

EDIT: The list of ingredients we show at 1:25 can vary. Manufacturers usually include a cation source (like lithium, sodium, or potassium) and an oxygen source, like chlorate or perchlorate. Together with a promoter like iron and a chlorine scavenger like barium peroxide, these ingredients react to make breathable oxygen!

[rburghiu]

The NTSB had been trying to get fire detection and suppression systems installed in cargo holds for years. However, the industry and the FAA had resisted such moves. This accident is what forced their hand.
Also, the canisters were placed in cardboard boxes, which is why the fire started, as the incredibly high temperatures ignited the cardboard, which helped spread the fire and activated the rest of the canisters.

[aliannarodriguez]

Wow, I’m amazed I was unaware of this accident. Very well told and I also learned the importance of that sharp tug in activating the mask. They sort of tell you to do that, but without understanding the reason I doubt I would have remembered it.

[pabloascencio]

Safety Last, it's sad regulations come after people die.

[fatsquirrel]

Great video, well written and well presented. Loving this channel. Keep it up.

[higo]

I always thought that the O2 in that system was ram air for some reason. Thanks for clearing up a misconception I never knew I had!

[xylafoxlin]

I had no idea about any of this!! Sooo cool

[stevefrandsen]

Saw this on Airplane Disasters. So tragic and so preventable.

[msaditu]

So happy to see Dr. Dainis back on this channel. Very interesting video.

[GrantSR]

I had to breath from an oxygen candle during Marine Corps Flight Deck Firefighting Training. I was amazed at how bad it DIDN'T smell. It just smelled like air (and sweaty Marines) to me.

[rfldss]

Oh its like the oxygen candles on submarines! Destin from smartereveryday showed one in his submarine series :)

[Little-bird-told-me]

*Best Channel* . Kuddos to the makers for actually dressing as an _airhostess_ and getting an oxygen mask

[IanGrams]

Great to see Dr. Dainis on here! I'd known some sort of chemical generator was used but didn't realize it's essentially the same thing as oxygen candles used in submarines.

[garycard]

It would be interesting to simulate the reaction in the chemlab using a small pile of the reagents on a heatproof mat, just to get an appreciation for what would be happening inside the canisters. Monitor the exotherm using an infrared digital thermometer. Visually, I imagine that there'd be a feint orange glow, produced by the oxidation of the iron. A little from the oxygen gas produced. I think potassium chlorate can be substituted for the sodium salt. The advantage of the potassium salt is that it is not hygroscopic.

[BeCurieUs]

'fun' fact, when they (NTSB) were testing this theory, they almost destoryed their test chamber because the reaction was so hot.

[mikojones]

The HEADLINE is MISLEADING. It was not the oxygen mask that caused the accident, it was the oxygen generators stored improperly in the cargos.

[relaxingnature]

The plane hit in a vertical dive, hitting the shallow water extremely fast ..it punched thru the bedrock to a lower void , much of the plane remains lost

[SystemF]

As a Pilot watching this video you did a good job on this video explaining but You said emergency decent profile to get you back on the ground its not really for that its just for us to get to 10, 000 feet, for thicker air so everyone can breath if you have poor lung function you still might struggle but you'll be alive, we could be right in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and we will do the same thing and fly to the nearest available runway which can be really far, In the cockpit we have gas tanks supplying us with plenty of oxygen attendants also have tanks they can carry, and they will have spares.

[AlexHurleyMusic]

Just one thing to mention is that if you're flying at cruising altitude and you lost pressure, without a mask you don't suffocate, you're still breathing in air but it's thinner and has a lower oxygen saturation. You don't suffocate, the medical term for it is Hypoxia and it's deadly, because rather than suffocating and struggling to breathe, you just slowly become more and more disorentated the longer you're left without a mask until you pass out and eventually die. The worst part about it is that it feels like being drunk or high. You become confused, some people become delierious, some people become aggressive and it intensifies and then eventually, you pass out. They're serious when they say put yours on before anyone else around you.

[niko-]

Subbed.

This random Knowledge is what I crave.

Also everything was well explained and interesting. Love this stuff