
Woman jailed for trying to open the airplane door mid flight - joaosardinha
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/chloe-haines-flight-stansted-airport-cabin-crew-trial-jail-sentence-a9331441.html
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drunken-serval
Not sure why this is news. She assaulted a flight attendant, said she was
going to kill everyone on board, and then attempted to do that.

I don't see how mixing alcohol and medication excuses her from consequences.
Two years seems reasonable to me.

~~~
hardlianotion
I can see that the outcome seems mundane given the crime, but the crime itself
is a bit unusual.

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gumby
The news editor should get a physics book. Trying to open the door is hardly
dangerous.

The woman committed several crimes and was dangerous, not just to the poor
flight attendant but via that transitively to everyone else. But attacking the
door...give me a break.

As for the fighter jets: how could they possibly help the situation? Shoot
her?

~~~
throwaway55554
> As for the fighter jets: how could they possibly help the situation? Shoot
> her?

No. They were sent to try and get a visual account of what the real danger
was. If it was determined that this was a terrorist act, they would down the
plane.

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CamelCaseName
>Jet2 claimed that the incident cost them £86,000.

Interesting, I'd love to see that cost broken down.

>Between 2007 and 2017, more than 66,000 incidents of air rage were reported
to the International Air Transport Association (Iata).

I know there are countless planes in the air every second of every day, but
66,000 incidents of "air rage" over a decade still seems crazy high!

~~~
Someone1234
I'm surprised it isn't higher:

> The aircraft was forced to return to the UK when Haines tried to open the
> door, forcing the RAF to scramble two Eurofighter Typhoon jets to intercept
> it.

That might mean:

\- Fuel dump (max landing weight).

\- Crew over-hours.

\- Additional airport fees / take off slot.

\- Compensation to other passengers.

If anything $86K seems low.

~~~
yread
Agreed, just the Typhoon's cost way more: UK accounts 70k pounds per flight
hour (that includes depreciation, capital costs and all that, pure per-hour
cost is probably closer to 20k)

[https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1384595](https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1384595)

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dannyw
Can you actually open an airplane door mid flight?

~~~
Someone1234
At what altitude? At low altitude, it is theoretically possible (although some
passenger aircrafts have a lock).

But even then it would still require significant strength, as there would
likely be some air differential due to the aircraft's speed/air pressure
against the door.

At higher altitudes it is essentially impossible for a human. You'd have to
blow apart the door or equivalent.

The biggest thing is the pressure differential. And that varies based on
speed/altitude/etc. At normal cruise in a jet aircraft, it just isn't
happening.

~~~
Onanymous
I do not get it, sorry. The door opens out, and the pressure is higher inside.
So how does the pressure difference prevent opening that door?

~~~
Someone1234
It isn't intuitive how aircraft doors work, but the door doesn't open "out" in
the typical sense. It actually sits against the aircraft's outer hull, the
larger the differential the higher pressure exist between the door and the
skin of the aircraft.

When the door is opened, it actually slides in then out sideways rather than
swings open.

See:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_door](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_door)

