Romney: Why can’t we open windows on planes?

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney provoked a storm of internet mockery when he said it was a "real problem" that there was no ventilation on planes.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney provoked a storm of internet mockery when he said it was a "real problem" that there was no ventilation on planes.

Published Sep 26, 2012

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It is fervently to be hoped that he meant it as a joke.

Because if he didn’t, the man who could be in the White House come January believes that aeroplanes should have wind-down windows.

Mitt Romney provoked a storm of internet mockery when he said it was a “real problem” that there was no ventilation at 30,000ft.

Seemingly oblivious to the fact that cabins are pressurised, he even claimed that the lack of windows would be “dangerous” if there were a fire on board.

He made the bizarre comments at a Beverly Hills fundraiser, the day after a plane his wife was travelling on had to make an emergency landing because of an electrical fire.

He said: ‘When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go 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.”

If the windows were opened, the oxygen would fuel the flames and cause a loss of cabin pressure that could tear apart the fuselage.

After the remarks were reported in the Los Angeles Times, they rapidly went viral on the internet, with thousands questioning Romney’s credentials as a potential commander-in-chief and others simply enjoying a laugh at his expense.

Reporters at the fundraiser later conceded that they believed the comments were meant as a joke.

Even if they were, however, it says much about Romney’s record of late that no one took them as such.

The Republican candidate has made a string of gaffes in his increasingly troubled bid to become US President.

In a secretly taped video, he wrote off almost half of the US electorate, claiming they were benefit scroungers. - Daily Mail

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