parachutes?

[riddlebox]

ok. i was thinking about the wrold trade center disastor the other day, and thought. What if all the people had parachutes in the buildings?? That would have saved so many lives, because instead of jumping to death, they would have been jumping to safety, and usoing parachutes to float to the ground. I know it sounds like sometihng from an action movie, but i really think it could work. Maybe cities need to think about this when planning for terrorist attacks. The only con i can think of is cost.

What do you guys think??

[mmlax123]

basically that would involve base jumping (i believe that is the correct term) with hundreds of people at the same time. it is very dangerous for experts to do this one at a time...so having hundreds of inexperienced (most likely) jumpers doing it would be extremely dangerous and probably wouldn't do a whole lot of good.

i'm no expert so i could definitely be wrong, and if i am, then this may be a good idea.

[Riot]

Would they have been high enough for the parachute to be effective?

[holyschnikes101]

I'm in favor of parachutes ( in just jumping out of stuff), but not in buldings. it wouldn't work.

[MainLax28]

I think it would be better than nothing. There are definately better ways to solve that problem that would have better success rates as well.

[mmlaxplaya17]

if i am at any height heigher than 4 stories I would love a parachute!
reason I said 4 is because 38m is the height that it takes to reach teminal velocity.

[bloodilax977]

No. Hundreds of people jumping out of a building, all getting tangled, falling on top of other people, getting in the way of firemen and policemen. It's a good thought, but it would just create more chaos.

[FredtheCat]

Um, no. It's not like huge buildings are constantly falling down. They would be expensive and would never be used.

[Jmalins23]

its not high enough for the parachute to work

[holyschnikes101]

its not high enough for the parachute to work
On D-Day some people dropped from less then 500 feet.

[FredtheCat]

if i am at any height heigher than 4 stories I would love a parachute!
reason I said 4 is because 38m is the height that it takes to reach teminal velocity.

Yeah, because a parachute would work really well from that height.

If you're in an exploding building, you can't just grab a parachute and magically float to the ground.

[HdGLaxWarrior]

On D-Day some people dropped from less then 500 feet.

1. They were specially trained.
2. Most of them didnt survive the drop.

[franks2089]

Huge slides might be a better idea.

[Mavido]

if i am at any height heigher than 4 stories I would love a parachute!
reason I said 4 is because 38m is the height that it takes to reach teminal velocity.
The parachute, wouldnt deploy in that distance, it takes a fair amount of falling time? or distance? i dont know.. for it to deploy.

[atacklax]

You'd need to be pretty high up. And be trained in base jumping. And have a landing spot. So I say no. Jetpacks on the other hand...

[crusaderslax09]

Huge slides might be a better idea.

I was just thinking the same thing. They could deploy from underneath windows or something.

[PBlax]

why not just better fire escapes?

but in the event of something as catastrophic as 9/11 Perhaps handgliding suits would be a more fesiable option. Parachutes wont work with thousands of people jumping and trying to depoly them. Where as the handgliding suits (you see them some times in movies like i belive they had them in tomeradier or what ever. They are the suits that when you extend your arms out the fabric acts as a giant wing spaning from your hand down to your knee) Can provide a more safe way of people getting to the ground. If anything they can always juse use them to glide into the hudson bay.

[HdGLaxWarrior]

why not just better fire escapes?

If you're stuck on the 100th floor, a fire escape will not save you.

[EricL]

You guys know how farfetched all the ideas on this thread sound.

[jedimasterPIMP]

I don't know about parachutes or really how they work, but if they could create a parachute designed for jumping out of building in a city setting that could open faster it would be a really good idea.

[Lacrosstitute]

IVE GOT IT! We all need to grow wings.

[LaxDr]

You'd need to be pretty high up. And be trained in base jumping. And have a landing spot. So I say no. Jetpacks on the other hand...
they'd at least have a chance its better than having nothing

[brikk9]

So while the planes are crashing in to the building and the building is colapsing, they are gonna climb over the planes to get outside the building (this is if the plane didnt kill them)? But by the time they get outside the building is almost fully colapsed (so that wouldn't leave time for people to parachute) then these "slides" are going to appear on the side of the building? Now think of this, the Twin Towers are surrounded by a ton of other building so the "slides" are gonna need to be almost straight up and down so they would hit the ground at the same speed as if they jumped. And PBlax, a fire escape? C'mon now, once again, the buildings are falling, and I don't know about you but I can run down 100 floors in the time it took the towers to fall. Just think about it guys, really, it's common sense.

[mmlaxplaya17]

The parachute, wouldnt deploy in that distance, it takes a fair amount of falling time? or distance? i dont know.. for it to deploy.
so open it before you jump :dummy:
and if it still wont the people at 4 stores can die and the people higher can live.
and yes if they had time to make the decision to jump out then grabbing a parachute wouldnt take much longer expecially if it was in their office.

[Krypt0M4g!c]

That had to be terrifying to jump out a 70+ story window... I'd rather do that than get burned alive though. It just had to suck waiting for the impact...... "Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh..." *splat*

[HdGLaxWarrior]

That had to be terrifying to jump out a 70+ story window... I'd rather do that than get burned alive though. It just had to suck waiting for the impact...... "Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh..." *splat*

Actually, they died before impact.

[FredtheCat]

Huge slides might be a better idea.

Ouch, imagine the friction as you're sliding down a 70-story slide.

[canadians_eh]

I was actually thinking the same thing the other day after i watched flight 93. And i think it would help a little but then you would have to show the people to parachutes and that could take a while.