Airliner plunges 10,000 ft. in 10 seconds

[midnight rambler]

That's roughly 2 miles in 10 seconds or nearly 700 MPH down express elevator.

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/20138456/turbulence-on-cuba-italy-flight-leaves-30-bruised

[Neuro]

That's roughly 2 miles in 10 seconds or nearly 700 MPH down express elevator.

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/20138456/turbulence-on-cuba-italy-flight-leaves-30-bruised
This is not correct. Gravity is 9.81m/s2. That means the plane after free fall of 10 secs would have a down ward speed of 98.1m/s (200 mph), and it would have travelled slightly less than 500 meters (1500 feets) downward. I think 300 meters or a thousand feet in 10 secs is more likely...

[midnight rambler]

I don't think it was free falling at that rate, turbulence apparently forced it down at that rate.

I'm just going by what the article states, i.e. loss of 3,000 meters of altitude in 10 seconds.

However you slice it, moving ~two miles* in 10 seconds is pushing 700 MPH.

*in this case moving two miles closer to the earth in 10 seconds

[midnight rambler]

Article in OP states 3,000 meters, this one says 1,000 meter total drop (after bouncing up 500 meters it plunged 1,000 meters).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/turbulence-on-milan-bound-plane-over-atlantic-causes-10-seconds-of-terror-injuries-aboard/2012/11/19/c619518e-3275-11e2-92f0-496af208bf23_story.html

So it was a plunge at roughly 230 MPH, not ~700 as indicated by the first article.

[Neuro]

I don't think it was free falling at that rate, turbulence apparently forced it down at that rate.

I'm just going by what the article states, i.e. loss of 3,000 meters of altitude in 10 seconds.
The article is just plain wrong. Free fall speed is the rate an object accelerates in a vacuum towards earth. After 10 secs the maximum descent would be 500 meters. The other 2.500 meters, down winds (turbulence) should have caused? That would mean wind speeds of at least 250m/s or 500 mph, DOWNWARD! I doubt you cold achieve anything near the same acceleration, if you point the aero plane straight down, releasing it while giving full blast of the jet engines. We are talking about -6 G's.

[Neuro]

Here is a comment from the Washington post article


Respectable sources report that there was a 1000 ft (or ~300 m) altitude drop. Seems much more likely.

http://avherald.com/h?article=45946d01&opt=0

[Uncle Salty]

I just want to know how many people shit or pissed themselves!

[Neuro]

I just want to know how many people shit or pissed themselves!
Fuck yeah! That is much more interesting than physics!

[Silver Rocket Bitches!]

I picture that scene in Airplane where the guy is in the bathroom shaving while the plane is all over the place.

[Dogman]

This thread makes me think of the ping pong ball lottery machines.