Eerie parallels between this fictional Flight 093 and the real-life UAL 93 seventeen years later:
The flight number, of course
Four hijackers
The mastermind's plan fails
While aircraft are pressurized, the cabin pressure aboard a Boeing 747 is generally equivalent to atmospheric pressure approximately one mile above sea level. Pressurization depends on a constant supply of air from outside the cabin, which obviously becomes unavailable if a plane is submerged (both because the intake vents will flood, and the engines can't power the pressurization system because they will also flood).
More importantly, aircraft door, hatch, and window seals are designed to hold pressure in, not out. Dialogue seems to put this aircraft at least 100 feet (30 meters) underwater, where the water would exert about 4 atmospheres of pressure on the plane. A three-atmosphere pressure differential is likely (based on my ten minutes of research, just now) would deform the fuselage pretty quickly. Hollywood likes to play this "underwater plane" game kind of a lot, but it's not based in real physics.
Even putting a 747 on this route (:airplane_departure: LAX, :airplane_arriving: DFW) is silly, even in the '80s. That model is suited for much longer, higher-volume routes. One wonders how a "small airline" (as described in dialogue at the airport, before boarding) even managed to buy one.
Less serious quibble: The jump from "String doing his taxes" to "String standing in air traffic control with Dom" made it feel like there was a scene missing. It was probably shot and then cut for time, but cutting the flight attendant's safety lecture before takeoff (which added nothing to the story) should have left enough slack for a quick "how did we get here" segment.
The thing is, I still liked the story thread of this episode. Caitlin needed some character building, and this gave it to her. I just wish the premise that enabled it could have been a little less laughable.
Review by dgwVIP 10BlockedParentSpoilers2023-02-12T05:04:47Z
Eerie parallels between this fictional Flight 093 and the real-life UAL 93 seventeen years later:
While aircraft are pressurized, the cabin pressure aboard a Boeing 747 is generally equivalent to atmospheric pressure approximately one mile above sea level. Pressurization depends on a constant supply of air from outside the cabin, which obviously becomes unavailable if a plane is submerged (both because the intake vents will flood, and the engines can't power the pressurization system because they will also flood).
More importantly, aircraft door, hatch, and window seals are designed to hold pressure in, not out. Dialogue seems to put this aircraft at least 100 feet (30 meters) underwater, where the water would exert about 4 atmospheres of pressure on the plane. A three-atmosphere pressure differential is likely (based on my ten minutes of research, just now) would deform the fuselage pretty quickly. Hollywood likes to play this "underwater plane" game kind of a lot, but it's not based in real physics.
Even putting a 747 on this route (:airplane_departure: LAX, :airplane_arriving: DFW) is silly, even in the '80s. That model is suited for much longer, higher-volume routes. One wonders how a "small airline" (as described in dialogue at the airport, before boarding) even managed to buy one.
Less serious quibble: The jump from "String doing his taxes" to "String standing in air traffic control with Dom" made it feel like there was a scene missing. It was probably shot and then cut for time, but cutting the flight attendant's safety lecture before takeoff (which added nothing to the story) should have left enough slack for a quick "how did we get here" segment.
The thing is, I still liked the story thread of this episode. Caitlin needed some character building, and this gave it to her. I just wish the premise that enabled it could have been a little less laughable.