Man tries to open exit door during flight

Wolfenberger said the man was held down and punched by other passengers
as he grabbed the man's leg. Air marshals then came and took custody
of the man.



Well it sounds like the air marshall arrived "just in time"....wonder
where he,or she,was while all the action was taking place? Maybe with a
flight attendant in the "cock pit"?

Charles Newman wrote:
> That kind of situation has been in FS-Passengers. He could
> have porentially caused an explosive decompression of the
> aircraft, as happens in FS-Passengers.


Not on pressurised aircraft. Assuming sufficient brute force, moving
the lever into the unlocked position on a pressurized aircraft door
would just move the door slightly, enough to break the seal and create a
LOT of noise as the air escapes through the fissure around the door.


When you consider the surface of the door, and a pressure of about 8psi,
that is a lot of pounds of force applied to the whole door. On a door of
6 feet * 3 feet, it would be around 2500 square inches. You apply 8
pounds to each of those and you get roughly 20,000 pounds of force
applied to the door.

nobody wrote:

> Not on pressurised aircraft. Assuming sufficient brute force, moving
> the lever into the unlocked position on a pressurized aircraft door
> would just move the door slightly, enough to break the seal and create a
> LOT of noise as the air escapes through the fissure around the door.

I don't know what the situation with Airbus aircraft is, but that would
certainly (in my view) be true of Boeings. Airbus doors seem to open
outwards first (like a plug-sliding door on a train or bus), so I
wonder if it would be possible on one of those?

Neil