As is usually the case with the media, aviation is an area where factual information is often missing. I also doubt most families know the facts about aircraft doors either. Most people think a door can just be opened up inflight.

The doors do swing outwards, but only after swinging slightly inwards first.

Quite. This was a flight back from a holiday destination, lots of families with little kids - a crazy bloke shouting and trying to open the door must have been pretty terrifying, especially considering the coverage a certain event's anniversary has been getting on tv lately. Heck, I know you can't open a door in flight, but I think I'd have been nervous too.

That said, the Mail is famous for such scaremongering, and rarely lets details stand in the way of a good story!

The force required would be in the neighborhood of 20,000 pounds. I don't see how you could get 20 people with hands on the door and footing sufficient to push that hard. And that's just the air pressure differential, not accounting for safety interlocks.

I think that's where the confusion lies.. basically most passengers see the final result, but often do not observe when the door is first opened..

Not to mention that 20 people wouldn't fit in the door area of a typical airline.

Most people don't understand a lot about aviation.

It's irritating when the media does this :td:

Poor passengers and the poor guy, he doesn't deserve a beating, sounds like a mental breakdown.

There probably are in addition to the fact that the pressure on the inside of the fuselage is too great for you to open the door against it. Almost all aircraft doors open inwards, even if they are then turned and pushed out. Even the B737 exit doors do (the handle is on a big piece of plastic that has to be pulled inwards).

So I'd quite happily get up and say "stop being such an idiot, you're worrying other passengers [who don't know the above]". No danger of being sucked out.

Neil

The handle on 737 doors is rotated counter-clockwise(clockwise on the right side of the aircraft) to open, not pulled inwards.

http://www.gecas.com/images/vtb737/1...r_300pxopt.jpg

Hang on a minute! Has the FT community really just concluded that opening a door, or trying to, in mid-flight is safe?

Yes, the doors do open inwards to break the seal, but the big door handle does just that, and that's why it's so big - to give the leverage to break the seal. Pulling it will depressurise the cabin pretty quickly. Once the door moves inwards away from the seal it swings so that the door twists out of the doorway. Watch the way it moves sometime.

Something needs to be done to prevent this one from breeding. Anyone have a scalpel?

You can't move the door handle to the open position inflight without disarming the passenger door. These doors when armed at the command of the flight crew during push back on the ground during departure, are interlocked with the emergency slide and latched. A typical passenger, especially one who simply rushes to the door to grab the door handle expecting it to open will not know how to disarm the door before anything else occurs.

So this particular door if the hand lever is pulled, would swing out as a result of the cabin pressure..

I would assume that there is a safety mechanism to prevent the door flying open midflight..?

:confused:

I don't think anyone has come to that conclusion?!

No, thats is not why the door handle is as big as it is. The size of the handle is needed to engage/overcome the latching mechanism. You can see the latches on the door and their corresponding tracks in the door frame. There is no way a one could engage those with a wrist movement, hence the large lever.

http://www.fotothing.com/photos/550/...f23a13e800.jpg

The door can not be opened nor a seal broken once the cabin is pressurized, and the size of the door handle has nothing to do with it.

People, I really don't see the confusion here. The door acts as a plug in the airframe when the cabin is pressurized, and because it has to move inwards first it is impossible for someone to open the door.

No. No door simply swings out. They all swing inwards first then out.