Raging Paranoia
 

Flying back from Europe yesterday. Took an unusually northern route, over Greenland. I come out of the lav, and look out of the window for maybe 15 seconds.

A flight attendant screams at me: "GET AWAY FROM THE DOOR!"

Like I was going to do what to it? Smear the window? Carve my initials? Yeesh...

Sounds like the FA could use a primer in the basic laws of physics. Unless you are superman, it's not possible to open an exit-door at cruising altitude in a pressurized aircraft. The door seals against the fuselage, and the force required to break the seal (due to the pressure difference between inside and outside the aircraft) would defy any human attempts to force it open.

This. A million times this.

General Members have access to a special button :p

I can open the exit door merely by swiping my Platinumium card.

How rude of her to screech, unless the OP exaggerated and instead meant she firmly told him/her.

There're been many reports lately of that happening on the ground and in mid-air (UA223 on 2010-01-23), so I partially understand why they're a bit testy.

Before the Christmas Day Attack occurred my mom was screamed at by an FA for "breaching security." My mom unknowingly walked from 9 in front of 1 (777) looking for an open lavatory. No announcement was made that pax were not allowed in front nor that no lavatories existed all the way up. Additionally, no sash was in place. I'm sure if the incident had been a few days after Christmas my mom would've been arrested.

Um, I don't know the ins & outs of opening aircraft doors at altitude, but pretty sure the pressure difference is working to open the door, outside pressure is much less than the inside. Inside is only pressurized to 8000 ft.

Could you mean that the air moving at 500+ mph against the fuselage is keeping the door shut?

No. The pressure difference works to keep the door sealed. Engineering it otherwise would be foolish. The way the aircraft door is designed, the door itself seals against a flange (built into the fuselage opening where the door is seated). The door is pressed against the flange when the aircraft is pressurized, creating the seal.

The doors tend to open in slightly before opening out, so you would first need to pull the door in from the low pressure outside to the high pressure inside. I imagine it would be very hard to do.

No -- the door is larger than the hole. At altitude the inside pressure is greater than the outside pressure. The greater the difference (the higher the aircraft flies) the greater the force required to open the door.

If you look at an airplane door, you'll notice it is like a "plug", with a rubbery seal around the door, that seals against the opening of the door "frame". The seal is kept pressed against the frame by the higher air pressure in the plane during flight at altitude.

When most doors close they sort of swing inside the plane then back "out" putting the seal in place against the door frame.

Unless you are strong enough to overcome this pressure differential, and break the seal from the door frame, you're not going to manage to open the door.

So to break the seal you would have to break the seal inward rather than outward. Thanks for the explanation. Sorry to have sidetracked the thread there.

Unfortunately, you were not alone. Millions of Americans share your lack of knowledge about how the doors work, causing passengers and flight attendants to irrationally fear the drunks and crazies who try to open the doors mid-flight.

Now that you know, go spread the word. Looking out the window of a door at cruise is not scary behaviour, as there's no human alive who could possibly open the door when pressurized. :)

If you see Chuck Norris staring out the window, be afraid. Be very afraid. :-: