When Delta Flight 4819 from Minneapolis to Toronto landed in a fiery crash that ripped off a wing and rolled the plane upside down, panicked onlookers feared the worst. But Michael McCormick saw decades of aircraft safety improvements in action. All 80 people on board survived last week’s crash at Toronto Pearson International Airport. “That was absolutely phenomenal that you could see an aircraft on its back like that and have people walking away from it,” said McCormick, an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Fiery aviation disasters of the past have taught experts that jet fuel should be stored primarily in the wings, not directly beneath the passengers. So when Delta’s Bombardier CRJ900 crash-landed Monday, tipped over and skidded down the runway, its fuel-laden right wing broke off, leaving behind a massive inferno. The plane continued skidding and rolled over. When a wing rips off entirely due to impact, ditching potentially explosive fuel is just one benefit, McCormick said. “We want to be able to separate the fuel from the passenger compartment, and at the same time, we want to be able to ensure that the fuselage can come to rest in a stable position,” McCormick said. The plane ended up in a stable position — albeit upside down. Everyone survived, thanks in part to brawny seats that can withstand extreme force. Most modern commercial aircraft are required to have what’s known as 16G seats, meaning they can withstand 16 times the force of gravity, McCormick said. “You don’t want the seats to either fall apart or come loose in an aircraft accident — even if it’s upside down,” he said. “So it’s not specifically designed for comfort, it’s designed for durability.” The seats include a humble yet critical safety feature: life-saving seat belts. Without the seat belts, passengers would have been thrown around and would have sustained a lot more injuries. While high-tech engineering likely helped save lives, “You cannot give enough credit to the cabin crew for the safe evacuation of that aircraft,” McCormick said. The two flight attendants on the flight had never landed a plane upside down, but the duo had trained for many scenarios. Despite dozens of passengers being strapped in their seats and dangling upside down like bats, the crew managed to evacuate the entire plane in less than 90 seconds. They did a phenomenal job. 上周，達美航空4819航班從美國明尼阿波利斯飛往加拿大多倫多，降落時發生劇烈撞擊，導致機翼脫落并整機翻轉，旁觀者驚恐不已，擔心最壞的情況發生。然而，多倫多皮爾遜國際機場的這場事故中，機上80人全部生還。邁克爾?麥考密克見證了數十年來飛機安全的改進，絲毫不覺得意外。 “看到飛機那樣翻倒，人們還能活著走出來，這很了不起，”安柏瑞德航空大學的副教授麥考密克說。過去的航空災難教會了專家們，飛機燃油應主要儲存在機翼中，而不是位于客艙下方。因此，當達美的龐巴迪CRJ900周一迫降、傾覆并在跑道上滑行時，滿載燃料的右翼斷裂，留下巨大的火海。飛機則繼續滑行并翻轉。 麥考密克說，當機翼因撞擊完全脫落時，遠離爆炸性燃料只是其中一個好處。“我們希望燃料與客艙分離，同時確保機身能夠停穩。” 飛機最終停在了一個穩定的位置 —— 盡管是倒置的。多虧了能夠承受極端沖擊力的堅固座椅，所有人得以生還。麥考密克說，大多數現代商用飛機都要配備所謂的16G座椅，這意味著它們可以承受16倍的重力。 “你不希望座椅在飛機事故中散架或松動 —— 即使飛機是倒置的，”他說。“所以座椅設計首先不考慮舒適，而是堅固。”座椅包括一個簡單但關鍵的安全措施：安全帶。如果沒有安全帶，乘客會被拋來拋去，更容易受傷。 麥考密克說，雖然科技進步有助于挽救生命，但“機組人員安全疏散人員至關重要，怎么夸都不為過”。航班上的兩名空乘人員從未經歷過飛機降落后傾倒，但他們接受過多種場景的培訓。盡管數十名乘客被綁在座位上，像蝙蝠一樣倒掛，機組人員還是在不到90秒的時間內成功疏散了所有人。他們做得非常出色。 (Translated by DeepSeek) | 