[throwmeariver1]

Their phones might have but the passengers would be unconscious.

[Goz3rr]

Based on what? As horrific as it might be it wouldn't surprise me if passengers were conscious all the way down. Even if oxygen masks didn't deploy or work, at 26,000 feet you have a few minutes of useful consciousness after rapid decompression [1]. Combined with the fact that the plane would be rapidly descending.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_of_useful_consciousness

[MauranKilom]

Maybe I'm missing something: Why would the passengers be low on oxygen when they go into higher pressure air?

[Goz3rr]

They wouldn't be. As the plane descends and the pressure increases the oxygen levels increase as well.

[encoderer]

G forces.

[jacquesm]

Nonsense. G forces are changes in speed or direction, those were pretty mild based on what we know right now, freefall or powered flight into terrain does not give huge G forces until impact.

[encoderer]

I recall a similar nose down crash that saw 5G force before it was recovered at 11000 feet. But you seem to be very sure?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_006

[srvmshr]

5g forces on impact would imply the projectile stopped at ~50m/s^2 (numerically 5x the gravitational constant) deceleration. In a free fall, it hardly exceeds 1g, unless the aircraft was powering it to hurtle down faster

[encoderer]

Read the accident report. It hit nearly 5gs on a powered descent and roll before the pilot recovered the plane.