A couple of premium seats in a commercial airliner that have ejection capability. The travelers would pay a hefty premium, but would increase their odds of survival many- fold.

Bathrooms capability would have to be integrated because I'm sure these people would not want to risk their investment by standing up to go to the toilet.
-- ixnaum, Sep 23 2010

Psychology vs Reality http://www.npr.org/...-should?sc=fb&cc=fp
[DrBob, Sep 23 2010]

It's a piece of experimental economics. Are people *really* willing to pay a high price to prevent something with tiny probability but infinite cost?
-- mouseposture, Sep 23 2010


Perhaps airlines could install placebo ejection seats to test market conditions before implementing this. The opposite has already been tested - people are willing to fore go safety for a cheaper ticket.
-- ixnaum, Sep 23 2010


Likewise, would people sign up for special bargain seats on flights if sitting in those seats carried with it a 1 in 100,000 chance of death?
-- hippo, Sep 23 2010


//offer additional seating in the cargo compartment for a vastly reduced fare?//

There are a number of "airlines" in Asia that manage to achieve something very similar to this in the passenger compartment.
-- infidel, Sep 23 2010


Make all the seats ejection seats. The crew/air marshall have control of the switches. No more terrorist worries.
-- Boomershine, Sep 23 2010


During the Vietnam War, the US did this with captured Viet Cong. Two would go up in the helicopter, one would be ejected, and the other would become very talkative.
-- ldischler, Sep 23 2010


// Are people *really* willing to pay a high price to prevent something with tiny probability but infinite cost?//<r>
Oh, I think they are! <linky>
-- DrBob, Sep 23 2010


It would be ironic if, given a high probability of a crash and sufficient warning, other passengers took over the premium seats, killing the occupants.
-- ldischler, Sep 23 2010


[dishler] ...angry mob running towards you with wielding plastic utensils and screaming "Give me your seat now!" ... EJECT,EJECT,EJECT! Problem solved
-- ixnaum, Sep 23 2010


//Problem solved//

Maybe not entirely, with those people piled up in your lap.
-- ldischler, Sep 23 2010


Even for a fit, young and highly trained pilot, having to Bang Out is a fairly traumatic and damaging experience. The sort of individual who can afford to pay the ejection seat premium would probably be killed by the experience .... ah. [+]
-- 8th of 7, Sep 23 2010


What [21] said.
-- Voice, Sep 23 2010


I just read the small print on my "ejection class" ticket.

It says I'll be ejected in the event of a mid-air disaster. But it conspicuously fails to mention what happens thereafter.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 23 2010


That largely depends on whether you chose to invest in the "parachute supplement" prior to departure ...

Inflatable dinghy not included. Passenger may accelerate during descent. Seat is packed by weight, not volume; contents may "settle" on impact.
-- 8th of 7, Sep 23 2010


so in case of attack, the first-class section is used as chaff ?
-- FlyingToaster, Sep 23 2010


Technically, most seats become ejection seats on impact. Let your conscience be your guide as to whether or not you'd charge extra for them.
-- doctorremulac3, Sep 23 2010


// conscience //

Your words are strange to us, hu-mon. We will ask the Accounts department ...
-- 8th of 7, Sep 23 2010


MIght want to check with legal. I'm pretty sure we've got a specific "Morality and conscience exemption clause."
-- doctorremulac3, Sep 23 2010


But isn't that the definition of "legal" ? Tautology ...
-- 8th of 7, Sep 23 2010


Finally, growing tired of the endless maundering of the slightly intoxicated, bad-smelling boor in the seat next to me, I quietly pressed the EJECT button on his seat's armrest.
-- infidel, Sep 23 2010


Well, that's one way of promoting yourself from co-pilot to captain, we suppose ....
-- 8th of 7, Sep 23 2010


"So there I was, a tellin' this nice person next to me all about my colostomy bag collection and VHHOOOSH! he hits his ejector seat button what's located on my arm rest. I'm pretty sure it was an accident. Awfully nice fella. Hope he landed safely."
-- doctorremulac3, Sep 23 2010


//So there I was, a tellin' this nice person next to me all about my colostomy bag//

Certainly the vacuum created by ejecting would pull anyone nearby into the gaping hole left in the fuselage. The "nice" passenger would find himself spinning in freezing and oxygen deficient air while still accompanied by that beastly woman, her dress drawn over her head by the air blast, with her colostomy bag now horribly revealed. Appalled, he would yank the rip cord, leaving the screeching woman to plummet down. He could then leisurely observe as the jet cartwheeled in the distance, the captain desperately trying to regain control.
-- ldischler, Sep 23 2010


[DrBob] Ooo! Good point. So, if people buy these for their children, rather than for themselves, we may get a paper out of it.
-- mouseposture, Sep 24 2010


"Oh, how I wished [ixnaum] had thought to include a supply of painkillers and an inflatable raft with a 20-week supply of food, water and sunblock in every ejection seat module!" I cursed for the thousandth time.

I had resolved to save the last few morsels of my broken and partially dismembered left leg for a sumptuous dinner this evening, after the tiger sharks had snatched most of it from me soon after landing. The skin on my head was now peeling off in patches, cooked and split like the skin of a blanched tomato, by the harsh tropical sun.

I tried not to imagine the 16,000 feet of water beneath me as a bad thing but as a source of blessed relief for my current condition.
-- infidel, Sep 24 2010



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