Mitt Romney: "I don't know" why airplane windows don't open

Update: Apparently, Mitt was joking

At a $50,000/ticket fundraiser at the Beverly Hills Hilton (home to one of the great Trader Vic's of America, I might add), Mitt Romney expressed his controversial views on aerospace engineering, as recounted by the LA Times's Seema Mehta:

Romney’s wife, Ann, was in attendance, and the candidate spoke of the concern he had for her when her plane had to make an emergency landing Friday en route to Santa Monica because of an electrical malfunction.
“I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney said. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.”

I expect that's the sort of insight into technology that Romney acquired while creating jobs by remaking American industry to be more efficient.

Mitt Romney pulls in $6 million at Beverly Hills fundraiser

(Image: Virgin Atlantic Window, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from aplumb's photostream)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: aerospace engineering • aviation • gop • politics

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Isn’t getting oxygen into a flame-filled chamber a bad idea?
- RedShirt77
  
  only if your plan for putting out the fire is to suffocate it. which isn’t the best idea if people are in the same space.
  - fuzzyfuzzyfungus
    
    Depends on how expendable the people are. Halon-dump fire suppression systems are sometimes used in datacenters, libraries, and various other places where water based extinguishers are a bad idea.
    
    It is considered a Bad Idea to remain inside the dump zone when one of those fire alarms goes off.
    - Fred Robel
      
      Agreed to that fuzzyfuzzyfungus! Halon acts as an oxygen replacer in the body. It will suffocate you if you breath it in. Alarms go off, time to get the fudge out of there.
      - BillStewart2012
        
        No, what Halon does is displaces the oxygen in the room, because it’s a heavy gas that doesn’t support combustion. It’s not particularly harmful to breathe in, but you’ll also be wanting some oxygen.
        
        The tricky bit is that, unlike in regular fire situations where you may want to crawl on the floor to avoid the hot gasses, if there’s a halon dump you don’t want to do that if you can avoid it. (The other problem with halon is that it’s normally under high pressure, and if your data center has loose stuff on top of the servers, like manuals or magtapes, it’s all going to blow around and may whack you in the head.)
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        We should use hydrogen for fire suppression! That’s lighter than oxygen.
      - http://nelc.livejournal.com/ NelC
        
        I was once cornered by a Halon fire-suppression system salesman who demonstrated the safety of halon by squirting a small extinguisher of it into his mouth. He didn’t die. At least, not then.
      - http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot
        
        Well nelc, did he swallow?
    - http://www.facebook.com/jay.yeman Jay Yeman
      
      Halon systems have been replaced with Inergen systems as Halon isn’t environmentally friendly.
    - wysinwyg
      
      Better or worse than burning to death? A close relative’s life was saved by getting hit point blank by a halon system. Halon is not good for you but fire is actually even worse.
- EH
  
  That depends on how many spare wives you have.
  - evanplus
    
    is that a Mormon joke?
    - EH
      
      It is!
- http://www.facebook.com/jeff.stewart.10441861 Jeff Stewart
  
  God help us if he gets elected.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Welcome to free will, God’s damage waiver.
  - benher
    
    Pff! Like gawd is gonna help that false prophet!
Editz

Let the free market sort it out. Those pesky, burning airplanes will soon be removed from service one way or another.
- dbx1
  
  I think that’s how third world airlines deal with it
Chuck

Now I’m imagining Mitt Romney painted up with ICP-style makeup, asking, “Airplane windows — how do they work?”
- RaidenDaigo
  
  I am so going to make that.
  - http://twitter.com/zeroanaphora แอ็ะปปี้
    
    well?!?!
    - http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul
      
      http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/funnypictures/ig/Republican-Clowns/Mitt-Romney–Republican-Clown.htm
      - http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki
        
        that is not Juggalo!
  - RaidenDaigo
    
    Here you go!
    - http://www.facebook.com/ted.hurley2 Ted Hurley
      
      OMG, why can I only like a post once?!?
- teapot
  
  ..aaand you’re welcome :)
RaidenDaigo

Ah hahahahahahahaha!
Brennan Caissie

New York magazine has a quote from the New York Times reporter who included Romney’s quote in the original story saying it was a joke. He’s not that much of an idiot, just a bad comedian.
“When we asked Parker this morning whether it seemed as if Romney made the mark in jest, she left no doubt. “Romney was joking,” she e-mailed.”

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/mitt-romney-joke-joking-airplane-windows.html
- Thad Boyd
  
  Thanks. As soon as I read it I was thinking, “Romney’s not that dumb, this is just another of his failed, awkward attempts at humor.”
  
  Either way I read the quote in Fred Willard’s voice.
  
  And it occurred to me that Fred Willard would almost make a really good Mitt Romney impersonator, except he’s way too charming and likeable.
  - kobrakai
    
    It wasn’t a joke. That’s just to cover for his stupidity. The quote is “…I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.”
    
    If it was a joke, he would have ended at “…I don’t know why they don’t do that.” and smirked his shitty smirk.
    - Thad Boyd
      
      I think it depends entirely on how long he paused between sentences. “So it’s very dangerous” could be his inept version of “Okay, but seriously, though.”
      
      I think we’re already overanalyzing, though. I think the Occam’s Razor interpretation is simply that Romney is terrible at telling jokes, not that he’s never seen an action movie set on an airplane before. (Though Mormons aren’t supposed to watch R-rated movies…)
      - robdobbs
        
        He may or may not be good/bad at telling jokes, but the simplest answer is that we take the quote at face value.
      - http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael
        
        Kennedy may or may not be good/bad at speaking German, but the simplest answer is that we take the quote at face value: Kennedy was explaining that he was a jelly donut.
      - robuluz
        
        No way man, Romney is great at telling jokes. He lives for laughter. People just don’t appreciate his sense of humour.
        
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daTtH-6kEuE
    - beforewepost
      
      You might want to check the NYMag article before you assert it wasn’t a joke. To wit:
      
      >The Los Angeles Times story that relayed Romney’s airplane remark to the world was based off a pool report written by the New York Times’s Ashley Parker. When we asked Parker this morning whether it seemed as if Romney made the mark in jest, she left no doubt. “Romney was joking,” she e-mailed. Parker told us that while the pool report didn’t explicitly indicate that Romney was joking, it was self-evident that he was. ”The pool report provided the full transcript of his comments on Ann’s plane scare,” she said, “and it was clear from the context that he was not being serious.”
      - http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael
        
        but…. but…
        
        YOU’RE CHALLENGING MY PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS!!!!
  - ldobe
    
    Speaking of terrible Romney humor, did you hear this one:
    
    Romney was in a diner campaigning. He walked up to a patron asking if he was eating an eggs Benedict. The customer replied in the affirmative. Romney remarked the guy should be eating it out of a hubcap, instead of a plate. When the guy asked why, Romney answered “There’s no place like chrome for the hollandaise.”
- jandrese
  
  There is a kind of Poe’s law thing with Romney’s jokes. The print medium doesn’t really convey the tone either. I’m willing to give him a pass on this until we get some in-context video where he’s super serious about it.
  - http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul
    
    It’s a no-win situation.
    
    Either he’s a total fucking moron…
    
    Or his gut reaction to the mental image of his wife choking in the smoke-filled cabin of a burning aircraft is snickers and giggles.
    - jandrese
      
      Gallows humor is hardly a new concept. His wife and everybody else on board the plane were fine, I don’t see what the big deal would be about cracking a joke or two after the fact.
      
      You’re coming across as incredibly shrill Jim.
      - http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul
        
        Oh please.
        
        I am, at the very least, credibly shrill.
- robdobbs
  
  Right… because they would have admitted his stupidity.
http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot

To be fair, the context *was* somewhat jokingly — but the guy just can’t deliver.
TheMudshark

Shh, nobody tell him. Maybe he´s going to get his next private jet custom made to have windows that open.
- SomeGuy
  
  And a roof rack for the dog carrier.
  - Brainspore
    
    Airplane roof rack dog carriers are for little people. They have an airplane roof rack HORSE carrier. (That’s why the poor dear did so poorly at the Olympics.)
scatterfingers

To be fair to being fair, I can’t tell when he’s joking or when he’s not.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Horton/100001980195134 David Horton
  
  And that is a very scary trait in a person running for president.
  - Brainspore
    
    “We begin bombing in five minutes.” —R. Reagan
SomeGuy

“…she was choking and rubbing her eyes.”

I guess Queen Ann’s handmaiden was sitting back in the cheap seats so there was no one there to reach up, grab the oxygen mask and gently place on her royal visage.
- http://www.facebook.com/sagebrushgardener Greg McCann
  
  I’m not an aviation expert, but if I recall correctly oxygen masks descend in the event of loss of cabin pressure – not fire. In fact it seems that adding oxygen to a fire might be a bad idea.
  - austinhamman
    
    so..decompress the cabin.
    air pressure goes down, masks go on, fire goes out, everyone’s happy.
    - macegr
      
      Decompress the cabin….by rolling down the windows! Wow, Romney is actually a genius!
      - mccrum
        
        You just need to think outside the little flying box.
  - jandrese
    
    Releasing the masks is a pretty drastic thing for the pilot to do, resetting them is expensive. It’s not something you do every time a board lets out a little magic blue smoke. If the cabin were really filling with smoke it might make sense, but as far as I can tell this was a really minor incident.
http://twitter.com/Epers Eddie Perkins

There are two possibilities. One, Mitt Romney actually doesn’t understand why plane windows don’t open, or two, Mitt Romney is making a joke about a situation where his wife could have died. Neither make me much feel like voting for him.
- dawdler
  
  i don’t like the guy either but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater here. humor – when delivered well – is pretty much appropriate any time. dark comedy? gallows humor?
  - TWX
    
    In “Dr. Strangelove” we weren’t laughing with President Merkin Muffley, were were laughing *at* President Merkin Muffley.
- http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch
  
  Or maybe he’s just a bad speaker. Heck, we had a president for 8 years that couldn’t even speak English.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  He’s socially inept which is, somewhat remarkably, extremely common in Presidential candidates from all parties. Obama is fairly rare in being able to just schmooze.
RedShirt77

In his defense, I think he meant that he doesn’t know why you can’t vent air and bring in some fresh air on an airplane. Which is actually an issue and really you should be able to release air and pressurize fresh air and that would probably make it healthier to Fly…

Note on his incompetence: No one that is this bad a communicator should actually be leader of a country unless you like world wars and riots.
- dawdler
  
  as far as communication, he’s still way better than dubya
  - IronEdithKidd
    
    At least we could tell when G-Dub was telling a joke. It’s seriously difficult to tell when Mittens is joking.
    - EH
      
      That’s because it’s all one joke with him, a con.
- fuzzyfuzzyfungus
  
  The ECS does do some amount of gas exchange with the outside; but dealing with either the very cold, very dry, ambient air or the very toasty bleed air requires putting more energy into the climate control systems.
  
  This means that, in practice, commercial aircraft recirculate a substantial portion of their atmosphere at any given time, and don’t have the capacity to flush atmosphere fast enough to eliminate smoke from a fire or the like.
http://www.undercoverrobot.com/ Blazeldude

Oh Mittens, you so kooky.
Navin_Johnson

And no car elevators either? What’s up with that?

Srsly though, sounds like a joke attempt, as far as gaffes go it’s pretty small potatoes and he managed not to accuse us all of being parasitic scum. A good day for him I’d say.
- http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher
  
  You can fit car elevators on a plane, but it has to be a really, really, really big plane.
  - blearghhh
    
    Such as:
    http://www.fastcompany.com/1290924/peek-inside-saudi-princes-485-million-flying-palace
    
    Although, even it doesn’t have an elevator… And actually Mittens couldn’t even afford it. One of the few things he couldn’t afford really.
    - ldobe
      
      That’s one kickass ride. It’s better than a lot of the megayachts you see on TV that are incredibly expensive, but only because of the $50 million crystal chandeliers, gold leaf plated walls, and diamond encrusted cutlery and drinkware. This plane actually has some pretty cool hardware.
  - Navin_Johnson
    
    :) I just knew somebody would say that on Boing Boing. #passengerplane
    
    It would have been great if he said: “Well at least I know they don’t open on my planes…”
- JonS
  
  ”he managed not to accuse us all of being parasitic scum. A good day for him I’d say.”
  
  Such modest ambitions for the man who would be President of America.
mortdieu

From what I understand in the case of a legitimate fire, the aircraft has ways to shut that whole thing down.
- Richard Wolff
  
  ……………………………….awsome
- IronEdithKidd
  
  ::slow clap::
- mccrum
  
  Rack ‘em, this one closed the thread.
spamky

supposedly a joke

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/mitt-romney-joke-joking-airplane-windows.html
Antinous / Moderator

You need the windows to open so that you can get to the dog on the roof.
- Navin_Johnson
  
  That joke would have worked for the supermodel thread too!
- Jem Sweeney
  
  Or the man on the wing.
  
  Note to self: Read entire thread before commenting.
TheKaz1969

I thought the windows didn’t open in order to keep the Gremlins out… of course, it also makes it difficult to shoot at them…
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I just reamed out my image files yesterday and got rid of Shatner and that thing on the wing.
Fred Robel

I’m with Someguy above. If the plane was certified, then it had to have had some supplemental oxygen available for each passenger, within reach of their seat. There was no need for her to have been choking on the toxic fumes.

That doesn’t make her especially ignorant, even though I’d love to say so, as most people don’t pay as close attention to the emergency equipment lecture or pamphlet as they should. But, this is case in point as to why you should: When panic time came, she evidently didn’t know how/where to get an oxygen mask for herself.

As for the whole windows rolling down in a pressurized aircraft deal: Obviously Mitt isn’t a really technical guy, and that sure made him look dumb.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=513504196 Matthew Holloway
  
  The oxygen masks mentioned in the briefing are not there in case of smoke and won’t be deployed in a fire/smoke/fumes situation. They would feed the fire. (Although, in this case there hasn’t been any mention of fire, only smoke and fumes.) The oxygen masks will drop automatically if the computer system in the plane senses decompression – that is, the cabin altitude climbs above 14000 ft from it’s nominal level of 6000-8000 ft. They deliver 10-20 minutes of supplemental oxygen to make up for the reduced pressure as the captain initiates an emergency descent to a level where the air pressure is higher.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    I was under the impression that the oxygen doesn’t start to flow until you put the mask on.
http://twitter.com/dargaud Guillaume Dargaud

People should be fined for being this stupid. Much less voted for.
http://www.luketemplewalsh.com/ Luke Temple Walsh

After Tricky Dicky and Bush Sr. the harmless-seeming “why he’s stupider than me, I can trust him because he’s too dumb to lie, or manipulate me” PR model became ‘duh’ rigeur.
Robert Rolnik

I’m an ex pilot. Some jet aircraft windows can be opened. Some prop planes have windows that can be opened. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockpit . Now, I don’t know all things about all aircraft. For example, I was surprised to see that a commercial airliner provides access to the cockpit through a hatch in the roof. Anyway, the jets made post year 2000 have a truck load of avionics for which no single person understands precisely how they all work — except that pilots know that they do, and have cross-checks to confirm functionality. So, its really not a simple issue of whether windows open or don’t. Now, who among you can explain the compression cycle of a non-diesel auto engine? Do we need to have presidents that can change a transmission in a car? Is that a real necessity?
- Quiche de Resistance
  
  No that’s not necessary. But there are about 1,000 other reasons to not vote for Romney.
- Editz
  
  Proof that some commercial jets have windows that open, though TWA 847 was an ancient Boeing 727.
- Jem Sweeney
  
  This. I can’t stand the guy and I fear for the country, but I really don’t see any reason to throw up our collective hands and say “MORE PROOF HE’S AN IDOT”. And anyway, I know engineers who have difficulty using Thunderbird.
- robuluz
  
  Now, who among you can explain the compression cycle of a non-diesel auto engine?
  
  I could if I wanted. I just don’t feel like it right now.
petershultz

Here let me fix that headline for you… Oh wait it won’t attach my screen shot. And I can’t delete this post. Ahhhhh.
Quiche de Resistance

THERE’S A SOCIALIST ON THE WING OF THE PLANE!
http://twitter.com/bigattichouse bigattichouse

His lack of faith in Darwinian principles could conceivably make this campaign MUCH MUCH shorter.
Ramone

Perhaps the candidate also harbors feelings in regards to why submarines lack screen doors?
Polonius

Apparently, he’s going for the Juggalo vote.
F*cking windows, how do they work?
gray paint

A picture is worth a thousand words

Goldfinger (1964)
MadAirUT

Duh, It’s a joke. He was laughing when he said it:

http://www.politico.com/multimedia/video/2012/09/romney-airplane-windows-not-opening-a-real-problem.html

“Humor. It is a difficult concept.” (Kirstie Alley as Lieutenant JG Saavik in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”)
- http://www.facebook.com/raul.r.arias Raul Rodriguez Arias
  
  Doesn’t look much like a joke to me, that’s a politician’s “always on” smile.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop
  
  Romneybot-012 has always had difficulty with humor.
  - EH
    
    EARTH HUMOR, AR AR
    
    http://rroyreport.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/mork-n-mindy.jpg
- unclemike
  
  The video is even worse than the transcript. It’s not obvious he’s joking, he says everything (including the part about his wife choking) in the same weird hehehe delivery.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=513504196 Matthew Holloway

Most do… for one thing, it’s how the pilots get out in an evacuation situation. Here’s a training video of how a pilot reacts when a window opens during takeoff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQZzTPd1HJw
FourFeetOfCurl

Can I buy some pot from Mitt? Apparently he smokes some quality product.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Horton/100001980195134 David Horton
  
  I think he’s just naturally high all the time. On himself.
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  you need a temple reccomend to get Jebidiayah Scripture
jlargentaye

Y’know, like all good card-carrying BB readers, I agree that Mitt is a (dangerous) douche. On the other hand, I’ve also stopped believing Obama is the Messiah (haven’t we all?), and I’ve noticed an interesting filter bubble effect: all the news I see on Obama is positive, all the news I see on Mitt is negative. It’s such an ovious example of filter bias. I wonder what the opposite looks like*?Dunno if this is the cause or result of America’s hyper-polarized political climate.

* No, I’m not going to Fox to try. I don’t want to become stupider.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Horton/100001980195134 David Horton
  
  Actually I never did see Obama as the Messiah. I’m not a partisan voter, more of a “lesser of two evils” kinda voter. There’s plenty of anti-Obama media out there. But he never would have had a shot at the presidency if he gaffed during his campaign so badly and so consistently often as Rmoney does.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I’ve noticed an interesting filter bubble effect: all the news I see on Obama is positive
  
  That’s your own internal filter. We’ve excoriated Obama for drone strikes, extrajudicial executions, various IP laws and treaties, etc.
  - jlargentaye
    
    You’re quite right. Seems I have a selective memory too : Also I didn’t mean to single out BB as the only source of positive Obama news (I Reddit too…)
    
    Nevertheless, my point remains: I wonder how it is to live with the opposite bias. As far as I know, you’d need to use Fox News as primary source. Maybe CNN?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1556052408 George Price

THIS is why.
smut clyde

I can only hope that Romney’s confidence in Cold Fusion technology was also a joke.
dayhat

I feel that mandating opening windows on all passenger planes would be a winning platform for the republicans.
it will certainly make as much sense as other desires of the republican party.
Zero Interest

Maybe some commenters here should watch the video of his comment, and you’d see he doesn’t laugh while saying it, Ann (standing next to him) doesn’t laugh, and he doesn’t pause after the “joke” to allow for audience reaction. It wasn’t a joke.

http://www.politico.com/multimedia/video/2012/09/romney-airplane-windows-not-opening-a-real-problem.html
EH

HA HA I WAS JOKING THEN HA HA WHEN I SAID THAT. SHEESH YOU’D REALLY HAVE TO BE A WACKO TO BELIEVE THAT HA HA THOSE WACKOS…IS IT HOT IN HERE?
Brandon Wright

Its good to know that when I’m feeling down I can look to Romney’s quote of the day to cheer me up =D
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=847810626 Jesse Nikolic

After reading all the comments here, I found this video, doesn’t really look like he was trying to make a joke though I hope that he was.
http://www.politico.com/multimedia/video/2012/09/romney-airplane-windows-not-opening-a-real-problem.html
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1429384929 Suzanne Cannon Rumsey

It was a joke…. Yeah! That’s the ticket!!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1429384929 Suzanne Cannon Rumsey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkYNBwCEeH4&feature=related
teapot

Just like when he was joking about the 47% of Americans who he doesn’t care about as they are mere leeches dependent on the successful.
- EH
  
  No, the 47% was truth spoken from privilege.
philoponos

In years to come Romney will surpass Andy Kaufmann in the annals of improvisational hoax comedy– Funny ha-ha and funny peculiar.
Emo Pinata

“When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open.”
This comment terrifies me.
Paul Boudreaux

My girlfriend thought it was funny when I read it to her. It’s actually a good Romney joke. I prefaced the joke by explaining it was a Romney joke. I guess the jokes on Romney…
Chris Roberts

The guy wants a plane with windows that open, I say give it to him. Maybe Darinwinism will win out in the end. =====> WHOOSH!