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If I'm, for example, in the lavatory where there are no oxygen masks, would it be advisable to hold your breath until you can reach an oxygen mask, or until the pilot brings the aircraft down to an altitude where we can breath again?

Is it even physically possible to hold your breath after a decompression accident?

juan Carlos Santana
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    I think there might actually be masks in the lavatories. – Notts90 Dec 25 '16 at 12:55
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    It would probably be impossible for you to hold your breath, the pressure difference would be too great and, it you tried, you would cause yourself serious injury. – Simon Dec 25 '16 at 12:55
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    @Notts90 the FAA decided they had to be removed. – juan Carlos Santana Dec 25 '16 at 13:36
  • @juanCarlosSantana US airlines put the masks back in recently, last year someone I believe, but they were gone for a while. – nexus_2006 Dec 25 '16 at 14:57
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    Seems daft not to have them to me but not me that makes the rules! – Notts90 Dec 25 '16 at 15:04
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    @juanCarlosSantana I was on a flight in the US a week ago and I specifically remember the flight attendant mentioning oxygen masks in the lavatory compartment during the safety briefing. – David Richerby Dec 25 '16 at 22:10
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    2011, the FAA ordered the airlines to disable them. 2012, the FAA ordered the airlines to put them back again within 37 months. The new ones are tamper-proof, so you can't disable it easily to use the oxygen to start a fire. – Quora Feans Dec 26 '16 at 17:53
  • Even if you could hold your breath despite the high internal pressure trying to force itself out, it would only help if you managed to take your breath in prior to the depressurization. Otherwise, you're just holding in an oxygen-sparse gas. As a result, the oxygen concentration difference between your blood and your lungs will equalize, but not in your favor. It'll pull oxygen OUT of your body. That's what's so dangerous about depressurization. It's not just about the lack of oxygen, but the secondary effect that has on sucking out the oxygen already in you. – Alexander Jun 10 '18 at 17:18

2 Answers2

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No. Holding your breath might cause breaking blood vessels in your lung (barotrauma). It is important to equalize the pressure inside your lung with the exterior. That is in fact the most fundamental rule for all scuba divers.

Also see this related question: Is it possible to suffer barotrauma during decompression?

Community
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bogl
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The answer by bogl is in the right line, also, I don't know if a person with their lungs having air at a higher pressure than the surroundings, as in a fast decompression, would be able to: 'hold breath' at all. The images in: 'Outland', a 1981 Sci-Fi movie featuring Sean Connery, are eloquent, but fantastic, unrealistic, this couldn't happen.

Urquiola
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