Eli5: Why aren’t we able to recover bodies after large travel craft accidents?

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After plane or space craft crashes, what happens to the bodies? Do they implode because of the pressure? In plane crashes, clothes and pieces of the aircraft are found, but no bodies.

After the challenger explosion there weren’t any bodies either.

What happens to them?

Eta: Thank you so, so much everyone who has responded to me with helpful comments and answers, I am very grateful y’all have helped me to understand.

Eta2: Don’t get nasty, this is a safe and positive space where kindness is always free.

I am under the impression of “no bodies”, because:

A. They never go into detail about bodies (yes it’s morbid, but it’s also an unanswered question….hence why I’m here) on the news/documentaries, only about the vehicle and crash site information.

B. I do not understand force and the fragility of the human body on that scale, —which is funny because I have been in a life altering car accident so I do have *some* understanding of how damaging very high speeds in heavy machinery can be. You’re crushed like bugs, basically. Just needed some eli5 to confirm it with more dangerous transport options.

Nonetheless, I have learned a great deal from you all, thank you💙

Eta3: I am learning now some of my framing doesn’t make sense, but y’all explained to me what and why. And everyone is so nice, I’m so thankful🥹

In: Physics

41 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

>In plane crashes, clothes and pieces of the aircraft are found, but no bodies.
>
>After the challenger explosion there weren’t any bodies either.

Unfortunately, the premise of your question is simply incorrect.

When large commercial jet aircraft crash over land, they absolutely **do** recover bodies.

Likewise with Challenger, bodies **were recovered**.

In the news, they generally *do* mention when bodies have been recovered. Again, your premise is incorrect.

Regarding point B… When such huge forces are involved, the human body simply breaks apart. It’s gruesome. There’s some truly awful stuff floating around on the internet, and honestly I recommend that you resist your morbid curiosity and **DO NOT LOOK FOR THESE IMAGES**.

I remember seeing photographs of a man, who had killed himself by riding his motorcycle into the side of a building at 100mph~.

His body was *broken* for lack of a better word. I will never forget seeing a photo of this mans foot, which was retrieved from inside the ceiling space of the building. That was nearly 20 years ago and it is burned into my memory.

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