Ahmedabad Air India crash: Can a detachable cabin save lives?

After the tragic Air India crash in Ahmedabad that killed 241 people, attention turns to a radical safety concept.

Transcript

00:00Ukrainian inventor Vladimir Tatarenko came up with this idea in 2015.

00:04In the event of a catastrophic failure mid-flight, the cabin carrying passengers and cargo would

00:09disengage from the cockpit and descend safely to the ground with the help of parachutes.

00:13If the landing happens over water, inflatable flotation devices would deploy to keep the

00:18cabin afloat.

00:19The design, however, excludes the pilots from the escape mechanism, raising both ethical

00:23and logistical questions about its implementation.

00:26Tatarenko had shared videos of this concept online in 2015 and has been actively seeking

00:31investors to fund its development.

00:33But the idea captured the public imagination.

00:36Now, modularity in aircraft isn't new, not at least in helicopters.

00:40The Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane with a twin-engine heavy-lift helicopter, often called a flying

00:45crane, has long utilised interchangeable modules for cabins, drive trains and fuselages to adapt

00:51quickly to various operational demands.

00:53Turning this vision into a commercial reality would be enormously expensive.

00:58Airlines already spend between $100 million to $350 million per aircraft as is, and that's

01:03without yearly maintenance costs.

01:05They would have little motivation to replace a trustworthy fleet with an untested concept,

01:09especially as plane crash fatalities are exceedingly rare.

01:13According to airline association IATA, in 2014, a tragic year for air flight, out of 3.3 billion

01:19passengers that travelled, there were a total of 641 fatalities.

01:23Also, what if the ejected cabin doesn't land as depicted in the video on a conveniently flat piece

01:28of land?

01:29What if it hits mountains or buildings without pilots or indeed wings to direct it?

01:34Who's to say where it would land?

01:35What do you think of this design?

01:37Let us know in the comments below.