The flight attendants can lock and unlock the lavatories from the outside, and it's not too hard to figure out how they do it. So…
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Passenger airliner toilets do have a slide type lock that is engaged from inside the lavatory. Is case of emergency, such as a medical problem, the flight attendant can open the lock from outside.
The first thing to consider is that doors are ultimately mechanically locked. The large handles on the doors are locked shut by the cabin crew. The cabin crew closes the aircraft's doors once all passengers are boarded, but there is one final step before the cabin is completely secured.
Just reach between the doors, pull down on the handle like normal, and then kind of grab both doors as you open up. As you go to close it, you might feel some resistance. Just keep pulling. And once you're done, you do the same thing in reverse.
Sudden decompression, which would occur if a plane door was suddenly thrust open, is another matter. Anyone standing near the exit would be ejected into the sky; the cabin temperature would quickly plummet to frostbite-inducing levels, and the plane itself might even begin to break apart.
A passenger on an Asiana Airlines flight recently opened an emergency door while the flight was in the air—something that shouldn't be able to happen. We looked into it. Usually, when the cabin is pressurized, the exit row doors can't be opened.
Your nearby cabin crew most likely will not be talking to passengers on take-off or landing, and you may think they are just thinking about dinner that night. This is what they are actually doing to prepare for the best outcome should there be an emergency evacuation. They are preparing to save lives.
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.
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.
On the ground with the aircraft depressurized it's fairly easy, just follow the instructions printed on the door. In flight with the aircraft pressurized, it's completely impossible (for plug type doors) as the force required to overcome the pressure is well beyond any human being.
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.