<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Going forward, I think every exit row pax has to be ready to pull open that emergency exit while the plane is still in the air</font>
To my knowledge, emergency exits on jets are designed so that they can't be opened in flight unless the cabin pressure is first decreased to something close to ambient outside pressure. They're "plug" type that are pressed against the plane from the inside. That's why, for instance, cabin doors swing in or up first when opening, and why the diagrams of window exits show the passengers pulling the window and placing them on the seat inside the plane.
Greg