How do these incidents occur? They have o2 masks in jets. Dont those work in situations like that?

RIP to those who died. Prwtty tragic to lose your grandkid that way.

Double dupity dupe!

The GD discussion: https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Plane-Crash-in-Staunton-VA/5-2649879/

The Aviation discussion: https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Another-Payne-Stewart-/147-2649937/

This isn't GD.

Why not?

Thank God.
If it was, we'd be shoulder-deep in B.S. and Tier 1 pilots.

I'm asking a general aviation question about the usefullness of those 02 masks. Do they work in one of those depressurization events or not?

Yes, but they don't fall out of the ceiling automatically unless you've got a high end system.  Lot more manual w/ opening valves by hand.

If no one's paying attention everyone just gradually goes to sleep if it's not a sudden event.

A pressurized cabin allows enough oxygen for normal ops without use of masks when above 10k ft. Cabin pressure regulators maintain the cabin pressure, when cabin pressure falls below a certain number at altitude usually an alarm is sounded warning the pilot to take action.

Yes, assuming you react fast enough and get the mask on in time.  

How long until you pass out varies dramatically with many factors, most significantly your health, the rate of pressure loss, and the altitude change.
Depending on your training and background you might also not recognize that you are hypoxic in time to be able to react.  

At 34k feet a fast decompression could have you pass out anywhere within a few seconds up to maybe a minute or so at best.  Many styles of emergency pilot masks are clunky and clumsy if you’re not very familiar with them, spend 5-10 seconds fumbling with the mask and you could easily be too drunk to finish putting it on.  

I believe that it wasn't a depressurization issue.   The pilot had a medical event.  There was only one pilot, so the passengers were not aware that no one was flying the plan.

It's a small plane and the passengers would be able to easily see in the cockpit.  Plus they would likely know how long the flight should be since they were rich and flew often.  And multiple fighters getting close enough to see inside and circling around would be hard to miss also.  So hypoxia sounds way more plausible to me.

Or the Air Force scratched another civilian plane without telling us?

Hypoxia can be a sneaky killer.

Bigger_Hammer

FWIW, what I’ve read or seen on YouTube is that the windows weren’t opaque- the F-16 pilots were able to see the pilot slumped over to the right.

Disclaimer- I’m not a pilot.

pretty sure a cabin altitude warning horn is required.

I dont know how anybody can miss that.

Is that not std equipment on private business jets?

Yes, I'd certainly agree with this.

Read the above detailed explanations.   They cover your question.

There are so many variables that affect an individual's reaction to hypoxia, that it's hard to tell how much time it will take to doze off.
You could be in the greatest of shape, and still be one of those people who react quickly, but you'd never know it unless you've had the training, and recently at that.
Everyone's different, that's why it's so deadly.
Because of this accident, maybe more pilots will get some training and become more cautious with respect to hypoxia.

According to Dan Gryder, her step parents were rich and flew often.  The step daughter and the nanny not so much - this was their second time on the plane.  Given that she didn't grow up around aviation and wasn't an aspiring pilot herself, chances are they were all nose down in their electronic devices and not paying attention, including to how long they were in the air.  Plus the time from the last turn over Long Island to when it crashed was only about 35 minutes.  Not really noticeable if you're preoccupied, or easily passed off as a just a normal NYC area ATC delay.

Information I've gleaned from other web sites...

- It was an original version Citation 560 (not an Ultra, etc.).
- Those aircraft were not originally equipped with quick-don masks. It is unknown if this aircraft had been retrofitted. Recently purchased from a Venezuelan owner.
- The 560 has no aural warning for low cabin pressure, only warning lights. Not sure what Part 25 certification requirements are today, but when that aircraft was certificated clearly an aural warning was not required.
- Frosted windows are by no means a certainty in a loss of pressurization event. If it was an outflow valve problem (due to mechanical failure or pilot error), dry, warm bleed air will continue to pass through the cabin and keep the the cabin temperature at a frost free state.

Also, the UK tabloid "The Sun" has published an extremely unflattering article on the pilot. I won't bother linking it as given the Sun's tabloid nature it's really more GD fodder commensurate with shoot-down conspiracy nonsense, but it's easy to search for on the Sun website.

It's unlikely that smoking hole left pieces large enough for a proper investigation so we may never know the true cause.

There's a good article in this month's AOPA Pilot magazine concerning supplemental oxygen.
It covers hypoxia and how it affects everyone differently.