But the interior trim panel is attached to some exit doors. The trim panel can be larger than the hole. I suppose this is to prevent you from throwing the door onto the inflated exit slide.

That's not why I wondered whether the doors weren't round. ;)

You can still throw the door, trim panel and all, out the exit by turning it on its side.

So now I'm really worried, because I'm sure some of those over-wing exits are only a little larger than the window, but the 3' x 4' (ish) trim panel is attached on the interior side. I think in some cases, the trim panel won't fit even diagonally.

I guess this would be obvious when you pulled the handle, but it could slow the exit process if somone tried unsuccesfully to put the door thru the hole.

- Boring link to millions of aircraft safety instruction cards -
http://www.angelfire.com/pokemon2/ae...anelist_e.html

Every door I have seen will go through the opening if one pulls the exit door towards oneself and then rotates it 90 degrees in the direction of the axis of the longer dimension of the door.

I have a feeling that nearly all of them will fit through the exit. Of the various aircraft that I'm qualified to work on, I'm certain the window would fit through all of them.

But it's yet another reason why the folks at your window exits ought to be reading their cards and following the directions in them. :cool:

That is, rotates it 90 degrees in two dimensions.

Wouldn't the exit door be a really cool sled?

I've been in 7B (exit) on CRJs eight times recently. Several briefings included "throw the door to out to the back (aft)". I even learned about the lifeline, but it is for crew use only. There seems to be an extra inch or two of space in the exit row, plus the row in front does not recline so that helps with space. Most annoying was changing to row 7 with online check in, only to have them switch equipment to the CRJ with the extra row (CR4 I think), making 8 the exit row.

Or rotate it 90 degrees in three dimensions and don't worry about putting it on the seat -or- throwing it out the door :cool:

All this nuance and debate only makes me more frightened when observing some of the nitwits occasionally in the exit rows.

Last week I was on an USAIR flight in the exit row and the people next to me were trying to hide from the flight attendents that their carry-on bags did not even remotely fit under the seats in front of them. Oy.

Yikes...I hope the FA caught it! I'm not much of a 'bag nazi' - except for the exit rows. Purely out of a selfish desire not to see all of you end up in a dogpile on your way out the window.

Yes it was caught...

The offending passenger was further offended when the flight attendent called her "lady".

"Did she just call me lady?" she kept mumbling to her husband or boyfriend.

I just smiled and went back to my David Sedaris book.