Originally Posted by
roberino
Hang on a minute! Has the FT community really just concluded that opening a door, or trying to, in mid-flight is safe?
Yes, the doors do open inwards to break the seal, but the big door handle does just that, and that's why it's so big - to give the leverage to break the seal. Pulling it will depressurise the cabin pretty quickly. Once the door moves inwards away from the seal it swings so that the door twists out of the doorway. Watch the way it moves sometime.
You can't move the door handle to the open position inflight without disarming the passenger door. These doors when armed at the command of the flight crew during push back on the ground during departure, are interlocked with the emergency slide and latched. A typical passenger, especially one who simply rushes to the door to grab the door handle expecting it to open will not know how to disarm the door before anything else occurs.