Is it possible to open a jet plane's emergency exit door mid-flight?
BOSTON – Sunday night, a Leominster man allegedly attacked a United Airlines flight attendant and tried to open an emergency exit door. A WBZ-TV viewer wanted to know what would have happened if the man had somehow been successful.
Francisco Severo Torres, 33, was arrested at Logan Airport after the flight landed safely. Investigators said he tried to open an emergency exit door and stab a flight attendant on board United flight 2609 from Los Angeles to Boston.
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.
That is the weight of six cars or 20 polar bears.
The lower the plane goes, the lower the pressure goes. But it does not drop enough to be able to open the door until the plane is basically on the ground.
