What is the highest altitude a plane can fly without oxygen?

For Part 91 General Aviation operations the required flight crew must use supplemental oxygen for any portion of the flight that exceeds 30 minutes above a cabin pressure altitude of 12,500 feet mean sea level (MSL) up to and including 14,000 feet (MSL).



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There are serious risks associated with the extreme conditions people face if they try to travel in the undercarriage of a plane. These include being crushed when landing gear retracts, frostbite, hearing loss, tinnitus and acidosis - the build-up of acid in body fluids which can cause coma or death.

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Traveling by airplane exposes people to decreased air pressure and lower than normal oxygen levels. For most people, these changes are not noticeable.

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Many large widebodies have a ceiling of up to around 43,000 feet (12,500 meters). The Airbus A380, for example, is 43,100 feet and the A350 and Boeing 787 are the same (although the larger 787-10 and A350-1000 are lower at 41,100 feet and 41,450 feet).

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A series of Navy and Air Force programs in the 1950s and 1960s used pressure vessels or pressure suits to get balloonists higher, some to above 100,000 feet. Skydiver Nicholas Piantanida set an unofficial record—123,500 feet—in 1966, but a later attempt went awry when his helmet depressurized.

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The answer to this question is actually relatively simple: Airplanes get fresh oxygen to use in the cabin from the air outside the fuselage. Regardless of the airplane's size or flight elevation, there's plenty of fresh oxygen available in the surrounding air.

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But, is there an exact temperature that makes it too cold for a commercial airplane to fly? “There is not a specific temperature,” says Tom Haines, Senior Vice President of Media, Communications & Outreach at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA).

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The Cabin Altitude of a pressurised aircraft is normally maintained at and altitude of 8,000 ft or less as a compromise between the physiological needs of the crew and passengers and the structural limitations of the aircraft. At 8,000 ft the use of supplemental oxygen is not required.

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As the partial pressure of oxygen in inspired air continues to drop with increasing altitude, signs and symptoms of hypoxia become more evident, and include loss of peripheral vision, skin sensations (numbness, tingling, or hot and cold sensations), cyanosis, euphoria, and eventually unconsciousness at higher altitudes ...

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