Originally Posted by
swag
Indeed. I'm a very frequent occupant of the MD80 exit row. And I'm pretty sure I could open it if needed. But there's a difference between lifting a 50 pound sack of flour, versus lifting a 50 pound door with the two handles, twisting it sideways, and either laying it across the seats (AA) or tossing it out the hatch (other airlines).
I'd love it if there were someplace in the terminal where I could practice it once or twice.
It would be nice if they could put a mock-up of the exit door in the terminal so you could test your self.
Its such a rare event that I guess they don't think its worth the trouble.
I used to practice doing that during recurrent training. The really hard part is putting the escape hatch back in its place!
BW