Can someone open the plane door in the air?

Opening an airplane door during a flight is incredibly difficult, and quite literally impossible. Airplane doors are designed to be opened by cabin crew only, and will only open while the airplane is on the ground. This is due to the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the airplane.



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Opening an aircraft door is impossible while the plane is at cruising altitude or above 10,000 feet due to air pressure. However, as the plane gets lower, experts say it is possible for a door to open as the pressure outside equalizes with the pressure inside the plane.

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WBZ-TV did some digging and found it is actually impossible to open an emergency exit door mid-flight because of physics. Common passenger doors are about six feet tall and 3.5 feet wide. That means to open the door at 36,000 feet, you would need to overcome more than 24,000 pounds of pressure.

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No emergency door can be accidentally opened by passengers. They are all automatically locked from the cockpit before you ever board, and in any case in flight they can't be opened due to the pressure differential inside and outside the plane.

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“Technically, it's not possible to open those doors in flight,” he told CNN. Thomas noted that the landing speed of an A321 is about 150 knots (172 mph), meaning winds of that speed are passing the aircraft. The door, behind the wing of the aircraft, opened into that airstream, he said.

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Inside the cabin, 8 pounds of pressure push against every square inch of surface area. The typical passenger door is about 6 feet tall by 3 1/2 feet wide. So we're looking at more than 24,000 pounds of pressure bearing down on that exit. The strongest man alive can deadlift only 1,102 pounds.

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The inner pane basically safeguards the load from the passengers during flight. When both the outer and middle panes break, then all the pressurization in the airplane would escape leading to decompression in the passenger cabin. A plane is pressurized for passengers' comfort as it climbs to a higher altitude.

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No keys for commercial jets No modern commercial jet aircraft have keys. They also don't have door locks. Ground staff need to be able to access the aircraft in the event of an emergency, and locks could complicate that.

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On many aircraft types, pilots can open the side windows in the cockpit. The main reason for this is not for ventilation or vision; it is related to aircraft safety law.

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Flying is still the safest way to travel long-distance, according to the International Air Transport Association. Aircraft accidents and fatalities are less common than car, truck, motorcycle, train, and bus accidents.

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According to USA Today, the common cruising altitude for most commercial airplanes is between 33,000 and 42,000 feet, or between about six and nearly eight miles above sea level. Typically, aircraft fly around 35,000 or 36,000 feet in the air. To put that in perspective, the peak of Mount Everest measures 29,029 feet.

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Why do the flight attendants touch the overhead compartment so often? Flight attendants don't just touch the ceiling for fun when they walk; the bottom of the overhead compartment has a scalloped area that provides a better grip when walking down a moving airplane.

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Some aircraft damage from lightning strikes includes broken lighting and windows, deformed antenna placements, and onboard electronics malfunctions. Other abnormalities or warnings on the flight deck, such as cabin air pressurization problems or false alarms, can occur after your airplane has been struck by lightning.

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Aerodynamic altitude: If a commercial airliner flies too high, it will encounter less dense air passing over the wings to create lift. This can cause the plane to stall and fall out of control. Depending on the weather conditions and aircraft weight, this can occur anywhere between 40,000 and 45,000 feet.

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For flights landing at U.S. airports, airlines are required to provide passengers with an opportunity to safely get off of the airplane before 3 hours for domestic flights and 4 hours for international flights.

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After all, even the most capable passenger can be incapacitated by one drink too many, which could put lives at risk. They also note that it's unwise to sleep in the emergency exit row. Because, well, it's the emergency exit row. Another unwritten no-no: XL fliers.

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