What a Nutter !
 

I wonder what he was on (or if he has not taken certain recommended meds)

The Mayor of Philadelphia denies all ties with this crazy man! :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Nutter

If this had been a US flight, he probably would have received more than a smack. Morons like this needs a good a__ whipping. Then let the law take care of them.

He accidently put his foil hat in a checked bag. Or that's what I heard.

Is it possible to open the door inflight?..

I would think that there are safety mechanisms preventing this possibility..

No. The laws of physics prevent it. There is too much force being put on the door when the cabin is pressurized.

I figured the law of physics may prevent it, but wasn't sure..

But, say if 20 people pushed on it.. I would think there would be a safety mechanism there to protect the door from being open while inflight..

But don't doors open inward? Pushing on it just closes it, right?

I thought the doors push outward..

If the doors opened inward, then I guess a rope could be tied to the door, and a hundred passengers could tug on it.. but wouldn't there be a safety mechanism preventing the door from opening?

Commercial airplane doors are usually plug doors that open inward (although some are then rotated and pushed outward to get them out of the way). In this way they cannot be opened in flight (except for a certain cargo door on the old DC-10 which caused some problems way back when).

I'm pretty sure every plane I've been on the doors opened outward

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..:rolleyes:

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..

This is correct for the make and model of the aircraft. According to the photo in the news article, the plane where the incident occurred is a Boeing 757, which has plug type doors that open inward first, then swing outward. All 717s, 737s, 747s (main deck), 757s and Boeing/MD aircraft have these manually operated doors. These doors can't be opened inflight because of cabin pressurization putting force on the doors.

Doors that push outward and slide to the side of the fuselage are on all Airbus aircraft and the Boeing 777 and 787. These doors have additional safety latches which prevent the door from opening inflight. Also, it is next to impossible to push out and slide these doors to the side in the forward direction while the plane is flying at 500 mph.

I doubt 20 people could all get their hands on the door mechanism to effectively apply enough force, especially in a small galley environment.

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.

Thanks..

Always thought that they swung straight out.. but it would make sense to have that safety component.. After all this is an airplane door, and some sort of engineering design would go into it to make sure functions properly.. and not swing open inflight..

It is NOT impossible! A physicist with a bit of time to spare could calculate the force created on the door flying a 30000 feet, but it is not that great and the levered door handle provides enough force to break the seal in any case. One the pressure has equalised the door can be moved freely.

So can everyone confirm that there is no safety mechanism that prevents the door from being open, when a flight is in the air..

Do we have a maintenance / engineer that can confirm that the door does not have a latched safety mechanism.. perhaps controlled by the pilot..

As pointed out above, there is no lever that provides force to break the seal.

There's about a 7.5psi pressure difference between 8,000 feet and 35,000 feet.

http://www.sensorsone.co.uk/altitude...onversion.html

A door that's 6.5 feet by 2.5 feet is 2,160 square inches, which amounts to just over 16,000 pounds of force.

But the lever moves approx 1m to pull the door back from its seating by 1cm, so there is a ratio of 100:1, i.e. only 160 pounds of force is needed on the lever to move it away from the seal...

That was not my conclusion from reading the previous posts.

Its one thing to move the lever as roberino suggested..

Its another to actually pull the door back, and push it forward, as nerd analyzed..

You're under the false impression that the door handle provides some sort of exponential leverage. It does not. It only disengages the latches. With the pressure from inside the cabin pressing against the door and the pins it would take far more force than 160lbs to open a door inflight. I would suspect that the door handle would break before the door opened as they were not designed to be put under that much pressure.

The only item the flight deck crew has for the doors is indication of open or closed (outer handle unstowed on some doors). There is no mechanical or electrical system installed that remotely locks the door(s) from the flight deck (at this time). Any PA announcements related to arming or disarming the doors is related more for the emergency slides.

The size of the inner door handle is provided to allow for leverage to break the seal when unpressurized (if sticky), and to actuate the internal mechanism for engaging/releasing the locks and pins. Depending on design, the door may also move in some direction relative to the opening before being clear of any stops.

The force required just to actuate the mechanical locking system when the door is under load will be greater than can be applied to the handle irregardless of the force that will also be required to unseat the door to open it.

What about the lights on the door that say "cabin pressurized" and signs on the outside that say "don't open the door if light flashes"