

Why airplane doors can't be opened mid-flight - mattyb
http://everything2.com/node/1783223

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philwelch
I notice this is the second submission by mattyb from everything2.com tonight.

As cool as everything2.com is, if anyone reading this has remotely any work to
do within the next two days, don't start traversing the tree of links from
interesting everything2 nodes. I say this because I learned, from experience,
that if you have tabbed browsing and open on average >1 new tab per page while
traversing a site like everything2, your backload of reading material will
grow exponentially and your procrastination problem, if you have one, will
similarly grow to epic proportions.

I fear mattyb has been sucked into this trap.

Apologies if this comment is not productive enough.

~~~
derefr
About five years ago, I managed to read _all_ of Everything2 (or at least
managed to circumnavigate an entire subgraph until I no longer found any of
the remaining outbound links interesting.) It took two weeks. It would
probably take even longer now.

I did the same thing with the TV Tropes[1] wiki, even further back; it
actually caused me to "queue" so many open tabs at a time that the browser
would crash on restore (I think it was about 800, spread out across several
windows, that did the trick.) I finally started queueing using bookmarks
instead of opened tabs; it was much more annoying to do, but I managed to
conquer that site as well.

[1] <http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage> — only click if
you're a competitor to a YC venture. ;)

~~~
klump5
My hat is off to you, sir. After spending a greater part of my past week's
evenings playing Diablo II, I can't help but appreciate level grinding of a
decidedly more cerebral nature.

~~~
derefr
I have to say, though: I don't remember any of it off-hand. At some point in a
"mind grind," your brain stops absorbing information from short-term into
long-term memory, although you still retain the ability to _make_ new short-
term memories, so you still feel like you're "learning," even though it will
all disappear sooner rather than later.

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sown
I thought it was also because of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper>
and the <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_vane>.

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rbanffy
Actually, newer 737's have emergency exits that swing open outwards. They are
probably locked into position, but not by the pressure, so, I guess, it would
not be that difficult to pop them open.

Most A320's I ride have the plug-type emergency exit that would be rather
difficult to open mid-flight.

~~~
ken
Also:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-10#Cargo_d...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-10#Cargo_doors)

~~~
rbanffy
Sure. That's a remarkably lethal engineering mistake.

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jvdh
It is an interesting story, but now I wonder what the phrase "disarm doors"
means that you often hear from the captain to the flight attendants after
they've stopped at the airport.

~~~
cperciva
When doors are "armed", opening them automatically deploys emergency exit
slides.

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
And when they say "cross-check" it means that the attendant at one door should
look across and see that the other door has been done correctly. It's a part
of the check-list culture that pervades the aviation industry and is partly
responsible for the continuing safety record.

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rivo
[http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/17/Man-jumps-from-
plane-...](http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/17/Man-jumps-from-plane-
at-23000-feet/UPI-41681239968606/) "The Adlair Aviation's two pilots said the
man became agitated aboard the King Air 200 turboprop plane Wednesday night,
and both tried to calm him down. However, about 110 miles before landing, the
man managed to pry open a door and jump out, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
reported."

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mcav
How do skydivers do it?

~~~
ankhmoop
The plane isn't pressurized, and often, the cabin has no door at all -- you
are free to step right out of the aircraft. The maximum altitude is kept below
12-15k ft -- above that, a jump would require special breathing equipment for
the dive.

Some planes do have closing doors -- for instance, rear-loading cargo planes.
Those are the most fun to jump out of, since you can take a running James
Bond-style leap out the back of the airplane.

~~~
warfangle
Free to step out of the aircraft, but typically you can clip yourself into the
inside of the plane with a carabiner. My first time jumping out of a perfectly
good plane was at 15,000 feet out of a plane with no "normal" door on the
side: as we climbed to altitude, we were sitting on the floor of the plane
looking towards the tail - and straight out the gaping door on the side of the
plane. It's a weird thing to look (almost) directly ahead and see the ground
at that angle.

Someday I'll jump out of a rear-loading plane -- as long as it's not a static
line jump... since I'm not military, that probably won't be a problem though
;)

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markessien
So what if you 'unlocked' the door at high altitude, when the plane goes
downwards, as soon as pressure is low enough, it will open.

~~~
jvdh
What do you mean 'unlock' ?

The story plainly tells you that the whole door is designed in such a way that
the door wont go anywhere unless the pressure on both sides is equalized.

~~~
markessien
You can unlock the door by turning the handle. You won't be able to get it
open, but it's unlocked. So when the pressure stabilizes, the door can easily
be opened.

