Flying on a commercial airliner is significantly safer than going for a casual drive in your sensible sedan or SUV. However, a plane crash is typically a much more violent, inhospitable environment than the average car accident. Incidentally, a shocking NASA archive video shows just how chaotic and horrifying the interior of an airplane can be during a crash. 

A sobering video of a Boeing 720 slamming into the ground demonstrates the violence of a plane crash from the interior

In the mid-1980s, an airliner crashed in the Mojave Desert. However, this was no accident. It was a deliberate crash experiment to research and test safety technologies to improve the survivability of a plane crash.

NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chose a fully-loaded Boeing 720 for the experiment. While the 720 doesn’t fly anymore, it shares a similar formula with many modern airplanes. For instance, the Boeing 720 is a narrow-body four-engine airliner with two engines on each wing, not unlike the popular 737 airframe of today.  

NASA and the FAA took four years to plan the crash. On the day of the experiment, they sent the airliner up with a small twin-engine chase aircraft. The Boeing 720 approached the ground without landing gear. Interior camera footage captured the pilot test dummy flailing back and forth in the seat. In the passenger compartment, test dummies shook in tandem with the aircraft’s movements.

The left-side wing and engines made contact with the ground before the rest of the aircraft. Consequently, the wounded aircraft rotated counter-clockwise as it skipped across the sandy surface. 

However, the No. 3 engine burst into flames after contacting the ground, creating a massive fuel-fed plume of smoke and fire. On the inside of the violent plane crash, flames swept from the right-hand side of the cockpit’s forward windows over the nose of the aircraft. Terrifyingly, flames entered the passenger compartment as the dummies bounced in their seats.

If the sheer shock and violence of the impact weren’t enough, the explosive nature of the crash looked less than survivable. Jet fuel burns much, much hotter than the gasoline you pump into your car. Incidentally, an immolating fuel load in a large airplane is an inhospitable environment. 

Fortunately, the date reported contributed to “several key changes in fuel mixtures, cabin equipment, and cockpit technologies.” Check out the video of the dramatic crash experiment below!