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Airplanes travel faster at higher altitude. But pilots don't travel better at high altitude. Above 10,500 feet, people start to be affected by oxygen deprivation: tunnel vision, slower reflexes, slower reaction times, impaired judgement, etc. Aircraft are pressurized so people don't fall asleep and/or die at high altitude. At regular commercial airline altitudes between 10,000 and 40,000', all aircraft have to have pressurized cabins. Pilots wear oxygen masks (with the gas turned off) at those altitude in case there is a pressurization failure or a rapid cabin decompression. If one should eventuate, they already have on the mask, and all they have to do is turn on the oxygen.

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13y ago

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