irmster

People walking up to the exit doors mid flight does make me wonder....this from BBC:


A French woman has admitted attempting to open an aeroplane door mid-flight so that she could smoke a cigarette.

Sandrine Helene Sellies, 34, who has a fear of flying, had drunk alcohol and taken sleeping tablets ahead of the flight from Hong Kong to Brisbane.

She was seen on the Cathay Pacific plane walking towards a door with an unlit cigarette and a lighter.

She then began tampering with the emergency exit until she was stopped by a flight attendant.

Defence lawyer Helen Shilton said her client had no memory of what had happened on the flight on Saturday, and that she had a history of sleepwalking.

She pleaded guilty to endangering the safety of an aircraft at Brisbane Magistrates Court and was given a 12-month A$1,000 (£429) good behaviour bond - she will forfeit the money if she commits another offence.

The French tourist was at the start of a three-week holiday in Australia with her husband.

BAGoldBoy

Can you imagine what would have happened if she had managed to open the door ?? The consequences could have been horrendous - I won't be able to sleep on my next flight to Oz just in case she is on the plane!

Reminds me of a sales conference trip to Atlanta where one of my colleagues claimed not to know that he couldn't smoke (pot) in the toilets - he was arrested when we landed

efincomputer

That is truly terrifying! I'm sure that "She then began tampering with the emergency exit until she was stopped by a flight attendant" is a polite way of saying "she was pinned to the floor by a couple of cabine crew and half the pax! My god - if I saw someone trying to tamper with the door on my flight i'd be on them like a rash! Thank god the staff have their wits around them.

As for having a history of sleep-walking - if she was prone to having a smoke while already asleep, i'm surprised she hadnt gone up in smoke long before now. A bit of a light sentence in my book!

The Saint

Is it possible to open the doors when the cabin is pressurised?

BA or bust

I thought the whole point of 'cabin doors to automatic and cross check' was precisely because you could not open them in flight.

If you can...

The Saint

I think doors to automatic means that they will trigger the slides automatically if opened. In manual they won't. We have now reached the outer limits of my knowledge on this topic; short trip, I know.

Aerotec

Yes, I believe the "Doors to Manual or Automatic" means that if on Manual the doors can be opened without the Escape Chute "Automatically" deploying, taking out a catering truck and potentially damaging the aircraft. As well as need a rather expensive kids slide to be repacked and reinstalled.

Due to the difference in pressure between the inside and the outside it will be impossible to just open the door in flight at cruise altitude. This is why a door has to be swung in slightly then rotated out as it rests against stops on the fuselage.

Reminds me though of the story of a friend who was flying BA (Loganair) to Shetland and as the Saab 340 (I think it was) rolled down the runway the emergency door half way back just fell in on top of the pax on the emergency exit row! Luckily the Captain was able to abort take off or that would have been a fun circuit for the pax!

Meerkat

Spottie, Pucci et al will be able to confirm this, but if the plane was at cruise alt , there's no chance she'd be able to open the door due to the pressure differential. Would have just given the pax a bit of a fright!

srbrenna

This is what I think as well - mere mortals will not be able to open the door of a plane at altitude.

SLF

What triggers the slide inflating? Is it the handle moving, or the door opening?

SchmeckFlyer

I (think) I can confirm that "doors to manual/automatic and cross check" does indeed refer to the emergency slides. Obviously, it would be rather inconvenient if the slides deployed each time a door was opened when the aircraft was being serviced on the ground, or if during an emergency the slides had to be inflated manually...

My mother used to fly (long ago), and she has told me it was amusing, but more disasterous, when a slide deployed because someone did not properly set the doors to manual.

Now I am just half guessing... but opening the doors inflight is not possible, unless you have superhuman strength. I now this is true of the over-wing emergency exits, but I believe the doors as well. The joints are such that the door pushes against the fuselage during flight due to the pressure gradient. Because the difference between cabin and external pressure is so enormous, one would need to apply an enormous amount of force to open a door (sort of like pulling off a scuba mask when you sucked all the air out through your nose, and the atmosphere is pushing against the mask with great(er) force).

But I seem to remember that the doors, although they open outwards, do have it open inwards or diagonally (or something) slightly before they can be swung outwards. In this way, there is still a seal that prevents someone from casually opening the doors for a smoke.

I still would have a heart attack if I saw someone trying to open the doors, nonetheless... just the thought scares me. (Several minutes to contemplate your impending, yet totally unannounced, doom.)

Boo Boo

Just more proof that smoking (and "being around smokers") can seriously damage your health!!!

Boo

Globaliser

And probably equal proof that an intelligence test ought to be required before boarding an aircraft.

Although that would damage the value of my airline shares ...

Boo Boo

Severely!

Indeed, some flights would go out completely empty! (wont mention any destinations, in case I am accused of being a snob... )

Japhydog

It's a good thing this didn't happen on a US-based airline -- the FAs would never have known since they'd be in back complaining about their employer!