That must have been a BLAST!!! According to wiki There were no major injuries during the flight. Much to everyone's surprise, Lancaster was found to be alive, and was taken to Southampton General Hospital, where he was found to be suffering from frostbite, bruising and shock, and fractures to his right arm, left thumb and right wrist. Flight attendant Nigel Ogden suffered a dislocated shoulder, frostbitten face and some frostbite damage to his left eye. Everyone else left the aircraft unhurt.[4] Less than five months after the accident Lancaster was working again. He later retired from British Airways when he reached the company's mandatory retirement age of 55 at the time. In 2005 Lancaster was reported as flying for easyJet.[4] Investigation Accident investigators found that a replacement windscreen had been installed 27 hours before the flight, and that the procedure had been approved by the shift maintenance manager. However, 84 of the 90 windscreen retention bolts were 0.026 inches (0.66 mm) too small in diameter, while the remaining six were 0.1 inches (2.5 mm) too short. The investigation revealed that the previous windscreen had been fitted with incorrect bolts, which had been replaced on a "like for like" basis by the shift maintenance manager without reference to the maintenance documentation, in order to save time as the plane was due to take off soon and there was a tight schedule.[5] The air pressure difference between the cabin and the outside during the flight proved to be too much, leading to the failure of the windscreen. The incident also brought to attention a design flaw in the aircraft of the windscreen being secured from the outside of the aircraft, putting a greater pressure on the bolts than if they were secured from the inside. The windscreen was recovered in a field outside Didcot, Oxfordshire by officers from Thames Valley Police. With earlier officers having not searched for or collected the bolts from the site, PC Tony Nash returned to the site and located a number of the windscreen bolts that assisted in determining the cause of the incident. Investigators found the British Airways Birmingham Airport shift maintenance manager responsible for installing the incorrect bolts during the windscreen replacement and for failing to follow official British Airways policies. They also found fault with British Airways' policies, which should have required testing or verification by another individual for this critical task. Finally, investigators found the local Birmingham Airport management responsible for not directly monitoring the shift maintenance manager's working practices.
So, back to the OP's problem with the little kid screaming the whole flight... Virtually none of the techniques adults use will work with a kid like that. Why? It boils down to anatomy. As a child's head grows, even though the head starts out proportionately larger than the rest of the body, the Eustachian tubes are actually ahead of the game in terms of length. In other words, a young child's Eustachian tubes are proportionately longer and thicker than an adults. Clearing them with a Valsalva can be difficult or impossible in a child that has an inflamed respiratory condition, which is likely what was going on with that kid. With kids that have normal mucosa, they will generally either clear (equilibrate) on their own, or shortly after they start crying (next time you hear a child crying in flight you'll notice it's generally climb/descent where the disequilibria occur). Giving children meds prophylactically is stupid, sorry. If they are old enough, chewing gum can help as the act of chewing (as with yawning) can momentarily stretch the openings of the tubes repetitively allowing equilibration to keep up as altitude changes. In infants, allowing them to nurse can help. If a kid has a URI, best not to fly until they are better unless you want to torture the kid as was the one in the OPs post.
The Syberjet SJ-30 has a 12 psi cabin, which gives you a cabin altitude of around 1,800 feet at FL490-- so basically always at sea level during normal operations. That's the highest that I know of. Most jets are around 9 psi. However, even in that case, the field elevation of the departure or destination airport could result in a significant pressure change, anyway-- think San Francisco - Denver, for instance. There's simply no way around that.
Ok, thanks....so the girl needs to fly in one of these. No more ear aches. "SyberJet Aircraft is a U.S. based manufacturer of the worlds fastest and longest range light business jetthe SJ30. The SJ30 has a high speed cruise of Mach 0.83 (486 ktas), a range of 2,500 nm, and a sea level cabin to 41,000 ft"
Once during decent into Toronto from Rome a girl about 6ish was refusing to buckle up and screaming for a good 20 min, saying stuff like we were all going down, we were all going to die at the top of her lungs. Even though it was just a child who clearly hated flying it was quite unnerving. I was pretty sure the little girl did not know something I did, however for those 20 min it wasn't the most relaxing decent. In this case a slap in the ass would have been nice from the parents, but they did nothing until the stewardesses told them to restrain their child and to shut them up or they would have to restrain her and the police would be waiting to speak with them. The parents calmed the child but you could still hear her now and then. I doubt the kid had popping ears but I thought I'd share.
Good luck. It's not in production, and only a few have been built. Searching for funding for the nth time. A Swearingen design.
That big a volume of compressible material even at low pressure makes a big bang. That is why most compressor receivers are tested full of water instead of air. If it fails it is a non event and the floor gets all wet.
The SJ30 was a cool plane. Too bad it never "got off the ground". I think Morgan Freeman flies one of the few that were built, and is involved in the latest round of funding attempts.
I was around when Boeing was doing the water tank tests on the 707 fuselage. They could actually control the rate of a failure and watch it progress. Thanks to DeHavilland's magnanimous offering of their info from their tests on the Comet. That saved a lot of test time and lives.
I didn't comment on the practicality, only that it's the highest cabin pressure differential that I'm aware of. I was on the fringes of that program long ago, and remain skeptical of it's viability (and I think at this point, my skepticism has been proven out). Ed Swearingen did a nice job on it, but from what I heard he had a hard time keeping himself from making one further improvement to the design... then another one... etc.
And coin impressions on the stabilizer (from ejected pax/cabin contents) leading investigators to conclude mid air breakup? Remembering what my dad (physicist) told me years ago.
