A Japanese plane headed from Tokyo to Texas had to make an emergency landing after a passenger tried to open one of its doors during the flight.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) Flight 114 was diverted to Seattle hours after taking off on Saturday “due to an unruly passenger”, the airline said.
Port of Seattle police told media they had been notified of a man who “attempted to open exit doors during the flight”.
The man, who was not identified, was “having a medical crisis” and had to be restrained by other passengers and flight crew, police said.
In normal flight, the pressure differential between the inside and outside is pushing the doors against the frame with thousands of pounds of force. So it’s not possible to open the door.
If you really want to go sky diving, then be sure to dump the cabin (button is on the flight deck) to equalize the pressures. It will also help to slow down below normal cruising speed. If you do dump the cabin, keep the altitude below 15,000 feet or make an emergency descent to that level. Hypoxia is a beast.
Thanks for the tips, D.B.
DB also made sure to select a Boeing 727 aircraft that has a rear stairway exit. It’s much easier to deplane that way into the slipstream.
To be clear, even if you have a door that opens outward, the doors first open inwards before rotating to go back out. That way pressure will always keep the door from opening when at a high altitude.
Veritasium did a video on it: https://odysee.com/@veritasium:f/what-everyone-gets-wrong-about-planes:e
… If you are at a crusing altitude of say angels 30, and you suddenly dump or otherwise rapidly lose cabin pressure… in addition to hypoxia, wouldn’t this also be screamingly painful for everyone’s eardrums, potentially bursting some of them?
Thanks, I will keep this in mind should I ever be overcome by the urge to open a door during flight.