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Old Sep 15, 2011 | 11:38 pm
  #16  
 
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Originally Posted by Ancien Maestro
A red herring article then, with the fear that airplane doors can be opened inflight..

The family is scared out of their wits, when there was no possibility of the doors opening inflight..
.
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.

Originally Posted by Ancien Maestro
We deplaned in Hawaii walking outside and LAX.. I could have sworn that the doors swung outwards..

I don't recall the exterior of the plane seen inwards.. that would actually seem inappropriate..
The doors do swing outwards, but only after swinging slightly inwards first.
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Old Sep 16, 2011 | 3:14 am
  #17  
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Originally Posted by ByrdluvsAWACO
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.
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!
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Old Sep 16, 2011 | 6:58 pm
  #18  
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Originally Posted by ByrdluvsAWACO
I doubt 20 people could all get their hands on the door mechanism to effectively apply enough force, especially in a small galley environment.
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.
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Old Sep 16, 2011 | 7:01 pm
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Originally Posted by ByrdluvsAWACO
...
The doors do swing outwards, but only after swinging slightly inwards first.
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..
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Old Sep 16, 2011 | 9:00 pm
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Originally Posted by CPRich
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.
Not to mention that 20 people wouldn't fit in the door area of a typical airline.

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..
Most people don't understand a lot about aviation.
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Old Sep 16, 2011 | 10:10 pm
  #21  
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Originally Posted by saint_em
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!
It's irritating when the media does this
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Old Sep 17, 2011 | 9:19 am
  #22  
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Poor passengers and the poor guy, he doesn't deserve a beating, sounds like a mental breakdown.

Last edited by Circumknowitall; Sep 17, 2011 at 7:28 pm Reason: spelling
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Old Sep 17, 2011 | 12:03 pm
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Originally Posted by Ancien Maestro
Is it possible to open the door inflight?..

I would think that there are safety mechanisms preventing this possibility..
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
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Old Sep 17, 2011 | 5:16 pm
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Originally Posted by pacer142
...(the handle is on a big piece of plastic that has to be pulled inwards).
The handle on 737 doors is rotated counter-clockwise(clockwise on the right side of the aircraft) to open, not pulled inwards.

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Old Sep 17, 2011 | 5:30 pm
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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.
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Old Sep 17, 2011 | 5:43 pm
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Something needs to be done to prevent this one from breeding. Anyone have a scalpel?
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Old Sep 17, 2011 | 6:14 pm
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Originally Posted by roberino
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.
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.
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Old Sep 17, 2011 | 7:54 pm
  #28  
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Originally Posted by ByrdluvsAWACO
The handle on 737 doors is rotated counter-clockwise(clockwise on the right side of the aircraft) to open, not pulled inwards.

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..?
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Old Sep 17, 2011 | 10:15 pm
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Cool

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


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

Originally Posted by roberino
and that's why it's so big - to give the leverage to break the seal. Pulling it will depressurise the cabin pretty quickly.
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.



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.
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Old Sep 17, 2011 | 10:24 pm
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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.

Originally Posted by Ancien Maestro
So this particular door if the hand lever is pulled, would swing out as a result of the cabin pressure..
No. No door simply swings out. They all swing inwards first then out.

Last edited by ByrdluvsAWACO; Sep 17, 2011 at 10:36 pm
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