Re: what kind of depressurization could people survive on an airplane?

Thank you for the question!

The movies are prone to over-dramatizing the effects of decompression; I've even seen depictions of people exploding from sudden pressure drops!

If, as you say, the passengers of your aircraft are supplied with oxygen masks the most likely injuries aren't going to be related to the atmospheric pressure they are exposed to, but rather to the flying debris caused by the hull breach while the pressure inside and outside equalized, buffeting by high-speed winds caused from the planes flight and extreme cold temperatures at cruising altitude. The oxygen in the masks will be supplied at original cabin pressure, so there shouldn't be any significant damage to the passengers' lungs or any occurrence ove the "bends." Passengers might also experience some swelling, discomfort and bruising from pressure differences inside and outside their bodies, but this is usually no worse than bad gas pains, which are a similar phenomenon caused by overinflation of the abdomen by intestinal gases.

If oxygen isn't available, then passengers could suffer from pressure damage to the lungs and severe onset of the bends, followed by slow suffocation, unconsciousness, and eventual brain damage or death.

A very informative general-interest articale on explosive decompression may be found at wikipedia, including several incidents of aircraft decompression and references to other sources. A chart of atmosphere properties, including approximate temperature and pressure as percent of ground-level pressure may be found as part of the Aerodynamics coursework references for the University of Sydney, Australia.

I hope this has been helpful