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>The implications for the aircraft, passengers, and crew, are rather different, however, when the plane is at-rest and on the ground. Yes, that's so. A 300km/h
by FatalLogic 13y ago
>The implications for the aircraft, passengers, and crew, are rather different, however, when the plane is at-rest and on the ground.
Yes, that's so. A 300km/h 5kg rock striking any part of a plane in flight must have a very high probability of proving fatal for all aboard. On the ground the risk of injury for each passenger must be much lower - the plane might even be empty.
However, while the plane is in the air, it seems that a faster plane moves through a greater volume of space per unit of time, compared to a slower plane, therefore it is at greater risk of passing through the space occupied by a meteorite in any particular hour. So, assuming that faster planes spend about the amount of time airborne as slower planes, the risk of an accident is higher for faster aircraft.
The risk for an individual passenger is not increased in the same way (I guess it is not much affected by aircraft speed), because the faster aircraft gets them to their destination in less time, so they spend less time vulnerable to meteorite impacts on the aircraft.