Airplane Door - From time to time, we hear about the frustrating situation of passengers trying to open the plane door during the flight. The attempt is usually stopped, soon, by the staff. But the question remains: Can airplane doors really be opened when the plane is thousands of feet up in the sky?
The short answer is that you have to be very strong, to do so - impossibly strong.
Airplane Door
"It's possible that the door would be opened by someone on the ground floor," said Dennis Tajer, a 25-year pilot with American Airlines. "Airplanes are designed so that doesn't happen."
Can Aircraft Doors Be Opened In Flight?
The inside of the airplane cabin is set to have a higher pressure than the outside of the airplane, with a difference of eight pounds per square inch. Standard passenger doors are 6 meters long and 3.5 meters wide. This means that to open the door, a person would need to overcome more than 24,000 kilograms of pressure - about the weight of six cars or 20 bears. Many airlines also use "plug-in" doors that fit snugly into the door.
Douglas Moss, a United Airlines pilot for 20 years, said: "The internal pressure closes the frame door."
Additionally, there are locks that lock the doors together, and permission from the cockpit is required to disable them, Tyer said. These irons are often deep in the front of the plane, and cannot be forced up.
And even if the friend managed to open the door, it does not mean that it is time to panic. It can become light, humid and cloudy, and temperatures can drop significantly, according to Moss. As Tyer put it: "It wouldn't be good, but it wouldn't be dangerous."
Passenger Tries To Open Exit Door Midflight: Is That Even Possible?
This does not mean that trying to open the door while the plane is taking off should be taken lightly. Pilots say far from it. "A passenger trying to open a door is showing a 'freak mentality,'" Moss said, advising people to try to beat someone in such a situation. or sometimes predecessor/subsequent management.Technology
Twitter icon Bird style with open mouth, tweet. Twitter Map LinkedIn The word "in". LinkedIn Image Flipboard Image Letter F. Flipboard Image Facebook Letter F. Facebook Email Card Envelope. Shows the ability to send email. Email Link Image Image of link. It blocks the website linking url. Copy Link
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest technology news and updates - delivered daily to your inbox.
Narrator: This is episode 123 of "The Twilight Zone," "20,000,000 Nightmares." Arguably one of the greatest shows of all time, it features William Shatner as:
Point Of View Of A Parachutist At The Airplane Door Of Another Aircraft In Midflight Stock Photo
Narrator: Bob sees a gremlin on the wing of an airplane and decides that the only possible solution to this problem is to steal the air marshal's gun, open the emergency hatch, and shoot the thing. Of course, this story is a complete guess. And I'm not talking about gremlins.
There are a few reasons why you can't open an airplane door mid-flight. The first is: Closed. But there's another big thing "The Twilight Zone" seems to be ignoring, and that's physics.
Let's check out the first really reliable source, the IMDb "Goofs" page. He says the plane Shatner flies is a twin-engine Convair or a four-engine Douglas DC-6 or DC-7. All this would be pressure.
The higher the plane flies, the higher the air pressure is. And the lower the air pressure, the harder it is to breathe. This is because the air is denser when you go higher. Molecules are completely different. There are fewer oxygen molecules in each breath you take and less pressure to distribute the oxygen in your blood.
Portland Man Arrested For Attempting To Open Airplane Door
It's over 18,000 feet above sea level, and our bodies can't get enough of it to keep going. That's why airplanes are in trouble simulating the situation at 8000 meters above sea level. It's the perfect middle ground that only reduces the oxygen in our blood by about 4%, not enough to affect how we function.
Modern airplanes fly at 36,000 feet above sea level. If they weren't under pressure, this would cause delirium in seconds and knock out in less than a minute. And the difference between the plane and the background can be huge. Which is exactly what families come in for. Inside the cabin, 8 pounds of pressure per square inch of surface. A standard passenger door is 6 feet tall by 3/2 feet wide. So we're looking at over 24,000 pounds of pressure below the exit.
The heaviest man alive can only weigh 1,102 pounds. "But wait!" you scream at your computer screen. "This nightmare was at 20,000 feet, not 36,000. The speed was low!" You are right, but there is no reason to cry.
Narrator: The pace is slow, but still high enough for anyone to win, even for William Shatner. And the door flies in black ink? It is practically impossible in modern aircraft. Most of the passenger doors are closed, the front sides are wider than the rear. It's called a plug-in door, and it usually works like a bathroom sink, plug-in hole. But what if someone on your plane has Shatner's super powers? It can cause something called "explosive decompression." And that's one thing "The Twilight Zone" got right.
What Happens If You Open The Plane Door During A Flight?
During an Aloha Airlines flight in 1988, part of the fuselage was cut off at 24,000 feet, leaving "blue sky where the first-class ceiling used to be," the captain reported. The flight attendant was then ejected from the aircraft through the hole.
Explosive eruptions are rare, but possible. Scratching a plane wall, a broken window, it doesn't matter. The huge difference in pressure creates a vacuum that can shoot anything up to 1,000 pounds into the air. And that vacuum effect keeps the pressure inside the cabin equal to the pressure outside. So Shatner made the right call to get in before opening those emergency exits.
If you don't live in the Twilight Zone, your chances of opening an airplane door mid-flight are about as good as seeing a gremlin on the wing. So the next time you start to panic about it, remember:
Airplane, airplane hangar door kit, airplane toilet door, airplane hangar door plans, airplane door stop, airplane door mat, airplane door for sale, door airplane, airplane hangar garage door, airplane hangar door hardware, airplane hangar door, airplane garage door