Originally Posted by mwgr2

Please excuse me if this question is rather basic or could be perceived to be speculation. This is my first post on here and the first time I came across this site was due to searching about this MH370 disappearance. I have no knowledge of aerodynamics and am also a nervous flyer. This may also explain why I've always had (perhaps irrationally) a fear of someone opening a door in the cabin mid-flight. The past press conference with the Chief of Police made me think of this again when it was mentioned that they were looking into potential psychological issues of the passengers or crew.

So, first, how easy would it be to open an emergency exit door mid-flight at cruising altitude? Could anyone do this or is there a particular mechanism inhabiting a curious passenger from doing so? Likewise, would it be extremely difficult to punch through or smash/severely crack one of the windows in the cabin?

Following from this, were an emergency exit door to be opened mid-flight/a window smashed out, what effect would this have? Would all the air pressure rush out and drag everything that's not securely fastened out of the plane (as I'm sure I've seen in films) ? And would this result in some form of speedy decompression that could result in the crashing of the plane?

Again, I'm sure that these questions are highly ignorant, so please excuse this.

Thanks