Social distancing on planes

[SanMiguel]

Empty middle seats - that's some special kind of stupid.
The seat behind is just as close, you have to walk past people to go to the toilet.
Like seriously, wtf. Seems more like a marketing gimmick.

 

[Metamega]

I can’t wrap my head around it. Guess it’s a feel good thing?

Theirs no way to keep an airport/plane virus free. Just too many people and shared surfaces. Get on the plane everyone touching same spots, bathrooms. Plus the ventilation is crap.

 

[maxinger]

at least I don't have to worry about plus plus size people sitting beside me.

 

[mlawson71]

I can’t wrap my head around it. Guess it’s a feel good thing?

Theirs no way to keep an airport/plane virus free. Just too many people and shared surfaces. Get on the plane everyone touching same spots, bathrooms. Plus the ventilation is crap.

Exactly. The ventilation alone would need a complete overhaul.

 

[Overnight]

It's funny. All planes have oxygen masks that can drop in front of people at the push of the button from the cockpit. Couldn't they adapt them to give fresh air, and simply switch over to O2 if there is a true emergency?

 

[ElCubano]

Does the mask prevent you giving others your cooties or not? Walk in with a box full of wipeys and make it work.

 

[maxinger]

It's funny. All planes have oxygen masks that can drop in front of people at the push of the button from the cockpit. Couldn't they adapt them to give fresh air, and simply switch over to O2 if there is a true emergency?

that oxygen cannot last for the duration of the flight.
it can last for few minutes only.

 

[Overnight]

that oxygen cannot last for the duration of the flight.
it can last for few minutes only.

It's not that it has to be O2. It can be fresh bleed air from the outside until the O2 from the tanks are needed.

 

[SanMiguel]

Helium

 

[vanzandt]

The air goes through HEPA filters. The same type that are used in operating rooms.
To maintain cabin pressure at cruise, pressurized engine bleed air from outside is mixed on a 50/50 basis.
In an hour on typical modern plane, it passes through the filter about 30 times. That means every 2 minutes it hits those filters. That also means about every 4 minutes you are breathing completely new air.

HEPA filters trap viruses.
http://www.donaldsonaerospace-defense.com/cabin-air-filtration/systems

I'd be more worried about the various surfaces.