Cabin Pressure

Good theater stimulates a cycle of tension and attention. If onstage events are sufficiently compelling to maintain a level of vicarious tension within the audience, the audience responds by focusing its attention on those events. The fact that theater is happening in the present moment, unlike canned entertainments, should intensify both the tension and the attention.

Allow me to provide our point of view for readers of The Times regarding "A Skeptic Under Pressure" (Sept. 27), which stated "there is no manual override system" for the Airbus A380 cabin pressurization system. The new A380 aircraft does feature a highly advanced manual override system -- one that is different from and represents an improvement over previous designs. Traditional aircraft typically have two pressurization valves with automated controls to achieve correct cabin pressure.

Ever since the Mangans gave up their comfortable house in Kansas City, Kan., and moved here a year ago, the family has been living in a kind of suspended animation. It almost looks as if they just moved into their two-bedroom apartment near Austria's old Imperial Palace: Some boxes shipped from the U.S. have never been opened and the bedroom windows are still covered with sheets because the family ran short of money before they could buy curtains.

A Southwest Airlines flight from Kansas City to Dallas on Saturday lost cabin pressure, forcing passengers and crew to wear oxygen masks for about 20 minutes until the plane had descended to a safe altitude. No injuries were reported on Flight 3201, which landed safely at Love Field in Dallas, spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger told the Associated Press. The flight, carrying 124 passengers and a crew of five, lost pressure at 35,000 feet. The masks deployed and about 20 minutes later, the craft descended below 10,000 feet.

We begin with a warning: If you feel the least bit claustrophobic, don't try operating a one-man submarine. There I was, embedded tight in the belly of a 4-by-10-foot mass of plastic and metal constituting what had been billed as the world's most accessible underwater craft. Lying face down, locked in as tightly as a match in a matchbox, I could feel the ship's walls touching my hips.

A leaky cargo door seal caused the cabin of a Braniff jetliner bound for Kansas City to depressurize, forcing the airliner to return to Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport, a Braniff spokesman said Monday. None of the 51 passengers or crew of five aboard Flight 548 were injured Sunday, although air masks dropped from overhead and the Boeing 737 made a steep descent from 31,000 to 10,000 feet, Braniff spokeswoman Irma Ellis said.

A Southwest Airlines flight with 118 passengers made an emergency landing Friday in Yuma, Ariz., after a rapid loss of cabin pressure, and the crew found a hole in the top of the fuselage, according to the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration. Photos: Hole opens up in plane during flight A flight attendant was slightly injured during the steep descent, but no passengers were hurt on Flight 812 from Phoenix to Sacramento, the airline said. The Boeing 737 landed safely at 4:07 p.m. at Yuma International Airport, according to the FAA. The pilot "made a rapid, controlled descent" from 36,000 feet to 11,000 feet after the loss of cabin pressure.

Nine passengers were injured Wednesday morning when their Florida-bound United Airlines jet lost cabin pressure less than an hour into the flight, forcing the pilot to return to Los Angeles International Airport. Those hurt aboard Flight 100 mainly suffered nosebleeds and earaches, according to Los Angeles City fire officials. Four were taken to a nearby clinic and two to a hospital for treatment. At least one of the injured was a child, United Airlines said.

Passengers gasped and prayed as an American Airlines jetliner lost cabin pressure at 31,000 feet Thursday, but the Boeing 767 made a safe emergency landing. Six people, including actor Abe Vigoda, were slightly injured. The pilot on Flight 160 reported that a compressed air line burst in the passenger compartment as the plane was heading nonstop from San Diego to Kennedy International Airport in New York, said Mitch Barker, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Seattle.

Investigators trying to determine why a Cypriot airliner crashed in the Greek mountains focused Tuesday on reports of previous technical problems, with Cyprus' transport minister and a former airline mechanic saying the jet had lost cabin pressure on another flight. Greek state TV quoted the transport minister as saying the plane had previous decompression problems.