Doubt it. A smaller plane will be around 15,000ft which would mean the fall would be about 1 and a half minutes to impact. I also doubt they were at that altitude so it would be less than that. Unless it was fast and massive I dont think you can die that quick from a heart attack. Passing out would be the best case scenerio, but even that is probably low chance as well.
FYI- much lower. At 15,000’ you need oxygen (or pressurized cabin), which most small planes do not have. I don’t think you’d need a supercharger yet, but many engines would be struggling
I was a passenger on a small plane where they only had oxygen for the pilots. I believe it was at 15,000 ‘. It was surreal: it didn’t take long for the blackness to start closing in from the sides until I could only see a small tunnel in front of me. I don’t know if I should have been worried for my life but I clearly would not have been capable of flying.
A standard air breathing small
Plane without supercharger or other altitude adaptation, can take a long time and a lot of fuel to get up to 15,000’ as the engine gets weaker with thinner air. It’s generally not worth trying to go this high unless you’re in a longer trip (the article doesn’t say anything about the plane though so if it had a supercharger and oxygen, then disregard this. Nothing I say applies to anything with a turbine)
One of the most common training aircraft is a Cessna 152. Google tells me it has a ceiling of 14,700’. It can’t even reach 15,000’ (depending on air pressure)
Just a quibble.
They said the instructor died ‘mid-flight’
Technically, he died at the end of HIS flight.
I was about to say, pretty sure he died when he suddenly stopped flying near the ground!
Hardly a flight, more like a fall really… :-P
Its not the fall that kills you, its the abrupt high velocity meeting with ground.
Technically accurate!
With style!
Maybe he did mid air from a heart attack
Doubt it. A smaller plane will be around 15,000ft which would mean the fall would be about 1 and a half minutes to impact. I also doubt they were at that altitude so it would be less than that. Unless it was fast and massive I dont think you can die that quick from a heart attack. Passing out would be the best case scenerio, but even that is probably low chance as well.
FYI- much lower. At 15,000’ you need oxygen (or pressurized cabin), which most small planes do not have. I don’t think you’d need a supercharger yet, but many engines would be struggling
I was a passenger on a small plane where they only had oxygen for the pilots. I believe it was at 15,000 ‘. It was surreal: it didn’t take long for the blackness to start closing in from the sides until I could only see a small tunnel in front of me. I don’t know if I should have been worried for my life but I clearly would not have been capable of flying.
A standard air breathing small Plane without supercharger or other altitude adaptation, can take a long time and a lot of fuel to get up to 15,000’ as the engine gets weaker with thinner air. It’s generally not worth trying to go this high unless you’re in a longer trip (the article doesn’t say anything about the plane though so if it had a supercharger and oxygen, then disregard this. Nothing I say applies to anything with a turbine)
One of the most common training aircraft is a Cessna 152. Google tells me it has a ceiling of 14,700’. It can’t even reach 15,000’ (depending on air pressure)