---
created_at: '2013-08-30T09:07:01.000Z'
title: In emergency cases a passenger was selected and thrown out of the plane (2004)
url: http://lwn.net/Articles/104185/
author: nkurz
points: 314
story_text: ''
comment_text: 
num_comments: 115
story_id: 
story_title: 
story_url: 
parent_id: 
created_at_i: 1377853621
_tags:
- story
- author_nkurz
- story_6300835
objectID: '6300835'

---
[Source](https://lwn.net/Articles/104185/ "Permalink to Re: [PATCH] oom_pardon, aka don't kill my xlock [LWN.net]")

# Re: [PATCH] oom_pardon, aka don't kill my xlock [LWN.net]

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# Re: [PATCH] oom_pardon, aka don't kill my xlock

[Posted September 28, 2004 by corbet] 

| ----- |
| **From**: |    | Andries Brouwer <aebr-AT-win.tue.nl> |  
| **To**: |    | Thomas Habets <thomas-AT-habets.pp.se> |  
| **Subject**: |    | Re: [PATCH] oom_pardon, aka don't kill my xlock |  
| **Date**: |    | Fri, 24 Sep 2004 01:45:20 +0200 |  
| **Cc**: |    | linux-kernel-AT-vger.kernel.org | 
    
    
    On Thu, Sep 23, 2004 at 01:23:08AM +0200, Thomas Habets wrote:
    
    > How about a sysctl that does "for the love of kbaek, don't ever kill these 
    > processes when OOM. If nothing else can be killed, I'd rather you panic"?
    
    An aircraft company discovered that it was cheaper to fly its planes
    with less fuel on board. The planes would be lighter and use less fuel
    and money was saved. On rare occasions however the amount of fuel was
    insufficient, and the plane would crash. This problem was solved by
    the engineers of the company by the development of a special OOF
    (out-of-fuel) mechanism. In emergency cases a passenger was selected
    and thrown out of the plane. (When necessary, the procedure was
    repeated.)  A large body of theory was developed and many publications
    were devoted to the problem of properly selecting the victim to be
    ejected.  Should the victim be chosen at random? Or should one choose
    the heaviest person? Or the oldest? Should passengers pay in order not
    to be ejected, so that the victim would be the poorest on board? And
    if for example the heaviest person was chosen, should there be a
    special exception in case that was the pilot? Should first class
    passengers be exempted?  Now that the OOF mechanism existed, it would
    be activated every now and then, and eject passengers even when there
    was no fuel shortage. The engineers are still studying precisely how
    this malfunction is caused.
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