OMNI - Emergency Exit during flight
 

A question that bothers a friend is whether the emergency exit can be opened while the plane is airborne.

Basically, can a suicidal individual break the glass for the emergency exit and pull the lever and open the emergency door while the plane is inflight.

Any comments would be appreciated. I imagine that there is some sort of locking mechanism but then how is it disabled during a crash.

generally they are larger on the inside than the outside--note when they say to remove the emergency exit, then tilt it and throw it out. Air pressure makes it impossible to remove.

The way I understand it is that the pressure inside of the plane helps hold emergency doors in place. If you look at the safety cards, they show that the door must be brought inside the plane when removed. Some are then discarded out of the plane. This generally applies to the doors used by people. A while back (70's), DC-10's had a problem with cargo doors popping open in flight. The faulty locks opened because of the pressure from inside the plane. Therefore, it would be difficult, but not impossible for someone to open the doors while the plane is pressurized.

It's been pretty much explained in previous posts, but basically the entry and emergency exit doors are plug doors that cannot be opened while the aircraft is in flight and pressurized. The window can be broken forcing a rapid decompression (there have been *very* rare instances in which a passenger has been sucked out the window).

The cargo door problem on the DC-10 was due to an inherent design flaw -- it was easy to force the cargo door closed, giving the false impression that the door was secure, when it really wasn't secured properly. The control cables passed under the floor of the passenger cabin; when the cargo door flew open, the resulting decompression collapsed the floor of the rear cabin, severing the control cables. The first time this happend, on an American DC-10, rapid action by the crew and an emergency landing saved the aircraft. The second time it happened aboard a Turkish Airlines DC-10, there was nothing that could be done... even though the crew almost pulled out of the terminal dive they ran out of altitude. 346 perished in the crash.

The door was subsequently redesigned, but other tragic crashes (American 191 and United 232) and the FAA-imposed grounding of the DC-10s in 1979 tainted the reputation of th aircraft. (To this day, the remaining DC-10s still flying for American do not show the aircraft's type, such as "767 LuxuryLiner"; they are replaced by the "American Airlines LuxuryLiner" title instead of "DC-10 Luxuryliner". (The MD-11, essentially a stretched and improved version of the DC-10 does not appear to have the stigma of its predecessor.))

I was sitting in the row in front of the exit row one time when the plane was just getting ready to take off. The man behind me started yelling that the exit door was open a crack.

It seemed a first time flyer who was hot had "tried to open the window" for some air.

Needless to say there was much confusion as the door was shut properly. The man demanded to speak to the captain not just the f.a.'s. He wondered if the plane would have taken off if he hadn't sounded the alert.

The co-pilot came back and taked to all of us about air presure and warning lights.

The man demanded another seat and the "too hot flyer" was moved to the back of the plane. Some new people boarded on the next leg and could not believe their good fortune to find the exit row empty.