Balls

[RooFlyer]

That's what Aviation Herald called it:

Incident: Norwegian Sweden B738 at Gothenburg on Feb 2nd 2023, balls

 

[SYD]

or worse. The risk of balls bursting mid flight!

 

[Hvr]

Sounds like an own goal with lots of unnecessary drama.

 

[AIRwin]

Balls up?

 

[jb747]

Which leads to the question of how much differential pressure a ball can handle. The cabin and hold are both pressurised, so they're only being asked to handle a differential equivalent to about 5,000'.

Perhaps he just didn't like footballers.

 

[Quickstatus]

differential pressure a ball can handle

They have done Studies

Soccer balls on the other hand have a regulation pressure of between 8 and 15psi (0.6-1.1 atmospheres). So at most not much more than atmospheric pressure at sea level.

IIRC 10,000 feet = 10psi

As expected Youtube has the answer from time stamp 5:17
35 psi apparently (2.4 atm). To get to 35psi would require maybe altitude of 20,000 feet?

 

[jb747]

They have done Studies

Soccer balls on the other hand have a regulation pressure of between 8 and 15psi (0.6-1.1 atmospheres). So at most not much more than atmospheric pressure at sea level.

IIRC 10,000 feet = 10psi

As expected Youtube has the answer from time stamp 5:17
35 psi apparently (2.4 atm). To get to 35psi would require maybe altitude of 20,000 feet?

15 psi differential at sea level would equate to 29.7 psi in a vacuum. Basically the ball should never burst. Aircraft are pressurised to a max of around 8.5 psi. So, at 40,000 ft the cabin pressure is around 11.2 psi. Our sea level ball would have a differential of only a bit over 18 psi.