[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by gordner

A catastrophic decompression can be just as dramatic as hollywood portrays...There are several examples of decompression literally tearing a fuselage apart. Air out of a valve stem is one example of a leak from a few atmospheres, so is a balloon popping.
The Aloha airlines aircraft that landed as a convertible had a fuselage crack lead to a catastrophic decompression that ended up tearing a good portion of the top of the cabin off, after a flight attendant was thrown hard into the structure by the escaping air and caused the crack to extend to a massive failure.
Gun fire in a pressurized aircraft is most certainly not a good idea. And to the point mentioned of high altitude drops from military aircraft, they depressurize before breaching the cabin.

Yup. At altitude there is a significant pressure difference between the atmosphere and airplane fuselage. If you create a small hole, there is a huge amount of pressure on that now compromised area of the fuselage trying to make it a bigger hole. So it's not so much the pressurization leak (airplanes always leak), it's the good chance that the little hole is going to get much bigger. That's why shooting a hole in the fuselage of a pressurized airplane is very much not a good idea.

HALO jumps are a totally different deal. The cargo bay is depressurized so it is equal to the outside atmosphere, and the jumpers and crew are on oxygen.