What is the oxygen mask theory on planes?

So the way the oxygen mask theory goes is that if you're in the unfortunate position of being on a plane which is about to nose dive, you should secure YOUR oxygen mask before helping anyone else – including children. If you don't, you risk not being able to help anyone at all.



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Without oxygen, you will quickly feel drowsy and even euphoric, a phenomenon known as hypoxia, but as time passes, continued lack of oxygen to the brain will lead to blackouts, passing out, and possibly even death.

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That, in case you're scratching your head, is the verdict of Brad Pitt's character Tyler Durden in the film Fight Club: “You know why they put oxygen masks on planes? Oxygen gets you high. In a catastrophic emergency, you're taking giant panicked breaths.

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Aircraft emergency oxygen systems or air masks are emergency equipment fitted to pressurized commercial aircraft, intended for use when the cabin pressurisation system has failed and the cabin altitude has climbed above a safe level.

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According to Airbus, if a plane loses pressure at 40,000 feet, those on board have as little as 18 seconds of “useful consciousness” without supplemental oxygen. Once the euphoria is over, hypoxia renders one unconscious and can cause brain damage or death. So wear the mask.

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After about 20 minutes without supplemental oxygen, you will be pronounced dead. By the time you get to 35,000 feet, EPT drops to 30 to 60 seconds and it falls to nine to 15 seconds at 45,000.

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The mask as such does not need to be airtight - it just needs to make sure that there's enough oxygen flowing into your mask to displace all the useless nitrogen in the air. Indeed, the mask you will see on airplanes are generally flimsy, plastic masks. Under water, these masks are not sufficient at all.

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Masks will automatically drop
Any cabin depressurization above a certain altitude (usually around 14,000 feet) will cause the panels of the chambers containing the masks to automatically open, and the masks to drop down. This can, of course, be done manually by the cockpit crew as well.

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— One of the most well-known crashes involving hypoxia was the 1999 crash of a Learjet that lost cabin pressure and flew halfway across the country on autopilot before running out of gas and crashing in a South Dakota pasture, killing professional golfer Payne Stewart and five others.

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The primary problem is low oxygen, says Professor Frances Ashcroft, a physiologist at Oxford University. Low pressure would cause little more than discomfort in the ears and eyes, but the associated drop in oxygen levels makes people pass out if they do not put their oxygen masks on within about 15 seconds.

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In the unlikely event that the system fails, and the aircraft is above 14,000 feet (4,267 meters), oxygen masks will drop from overhead. While passengers and cabin crew are provided with these unmistakable yellow cups, pilots have different – much more interesting – equipment.

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