It is impossible to open an airplane door in flight: why do they continue to be punished for trying to do this

This year, two airline passengers have already frightened fellow travelers when they tried to open the door of an airliner during a flight. Similar incidents happened repeatedly in the past year. About why the door during the flight cannot be opened and what will be for trying to do this, the publication told The Washington Post.

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Both passengers were detained during the latest incidents. But even if the flight attendants and passengers had not intervened, none of the passengers would have been able to open the door.

"People aren't strong enough," said Doug Moss, a retired airline pilot and aviation safety program instructor at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering.

This is because no one person can handle the tremendous pressure holding the door in place.

Aircraft cabins are pressurized, allowing people to breathe normally even when flying at an altitude of about 35 feet (000 km). At typical cruising altitude, ask the pilot author Patrick Smith notes that eight pounds (10 kg) of pressure per square inch (3,6 cm) of aircraft cabin or more than 6,4 pounds (1100 kg) per square foot (500 sq. m) doors.

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“With pressure alone, the force required to open the door would be astronomical,” said Bob Thomas, assistant professor of aeronautics at Embry-Riddle Aviation University.

Moss said the pressurization would have the same effect on any door on the plane, including emergency exits that are meant to be used in the event of an evacuation when the plane is no longer airborne.

Consider a door that a Delta passenger tried to open on a flight from Salt Lake City, Utah to Portland, Oregon. The 32-year-old man removed the plastic covering of the emergency exit handle and pulled on it. The passenger later told police that he wanted to be listened to because he wanted to share his thoughts on the COVID-19 vaccine. The stewardess told him to let go of the handle while the flight crew held him back.

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In another incident, a man tried to open the main passenger door on an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles, California to D.C. before being grabbed by passengers and crew, according to a union of flight attendants and witnesses. The flight headed to Kansas City, Missouri, where the FBI took the man into custody.

Experts say that while passengers who violate the rules will not be able to open the aircraft door, they should understand that even trying to do so is a serious violation.

“Trying to do something to an aircraft door in flight is not safe and is considered an attack on the aircraft,” said Dennis Tager, an American Airlines captain and an employee of the Allied Pilots Association, which represents the airline's pilots.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• In July a woman attacked the flight attendants and tried to open the front door of the plane. The incident occurred on American Airlines Flight 1774, flying from Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas to Charlotte, North Carolina.
• A similar incident occurred at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. To escape from suffocation in the cabin, one of the passengers decided to open the emergency exit door.
• 33 year old man jumped out of a taxiing plane at Los Angeles International Airport (California), charged with a federal crime. Now he faces 20 years in prison.

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