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Flat Earth Theory / Re: Questions about Air Travel
« on: May 02, 2020, 09:13:42 AM »I am under the belief that many of the flights are based more on practicality rather than ideal paths.
Why would you set up a flight route across the potentially dangerous barren Arctic when it makes more sense to stay near more of the habitable zone containing airports, islands with airstrips, and also make money picking up and dropping off passengers on the way?
Here's a scenario for you. You're in a twin engined jet at cruise altitude, you get a sudden depressurisation, so the masks drop and the plane descends to 10,000 feet or less and you're over mountains with zero visibility outside. Then you get a catastrophic engine failure, a fire breaks out in the baggage hold, the GPS packs up and the satellite based radio stops working. The nearest airport is 5 1/2 hours flying time away. What's the likely outcome?
A perfectly safe landing.
Why? Because you're flying in an ETOPS-330 certified jet (330 minutes equals 5 1/2 hours flying time) over accurately mapped terrain, which means the fire suppression system in the hold will keep a fire at bay until you land, the plane flies just fine on one engine, it's equipped with an inertial navigation system, as backup for the GPS, so you know where you are and you have long range HF radios in case the satellite comms breaks down. All you need now is a semi-competent crew.
Why would cost sensitive airlines then get their aircraft to zig-zag around keeping close to nearby airports along their routes, when they can take a perfectly safe direct route. Your passengers are more likely to die on their way to the airport.
And as for stopping off to pick up passengers, aircraft are at their least cost efficient climbing and descending, taxiing along the ground, sitting at gates and loading and unloading passengers. Passengers nearly always seem to prefer faster direct flights. That's what's killing off the A380 and B747 with the old hub-and-spoke model. The modern economical twin jets allow economical point to point direct flights and when given the choice, passengers vote with their feet and wallets.