Good news—it would be physically impossible to open the door mid-flight, but there are serious consequences for people who try.
The most important thing in the exit row on a plane isn’t the extra legroom—it’s the emergency door. The doors are strategically placed throughout the plane to allow passengers to easily exit, whether they’re sitting in the first or last rows. The Airbus A380—the world’s largest commercial aircraft—has 16 emergency doors. This is approximately one emergency door for every 50 passengers. Flight attendants’ safety speeches include information about the closest emergency doors, but they don’t answer one important question. What happens if I try to open an emergency door in the middle of a flight?
Is it possible for the emergency door to be opened in mid-flight?
If you ask American Airlines First Officer Steve Scheibner, nothing would happen if you tried to open the door—because you can’t Open the emergency door during flight. Physically, you cannot open the emergency exit door in mid-flight. Scheibner says, “Once the door gets pressed in flight, that’s nine pounds a square inch.” Captain Steeeve on TikTok There he has over 380,000 fans. Another pilot who became a social media star explains it further on YouTube“We reduce the altitude of our aircraft so you can breathe,” says Pilot PascalKlr. “The pressure from the inside pushes it into its frame.” Scientists compare it to the way a drain plug functions. The small size of bath and sink drains makes it difficult to pick up. Most emergency exits on planes also open inwards.
But physics alone is not enough to keep emergency doors shut during flights. All cabin doors on most commercial aircraft automatically lock when the plane reaches a certain speed. Scheibner estimates that it is around 80 knots. The locks can’t manually be unlocked until the aircraft slows down. Evidently, these locks were not standard back in 1971 when “D.B. Cooper parachuted out from the rear door of a Boeing 737 with $200,000 worth of cash, somewhere in Southeast Washington. In fact, because hijacking passenger planes was common in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) amended their safety regulations in 1972 and started requiring large passenger aircraft exits to be designed so that they can’t be opened during flight.
Margot Cavin/Travel + Leisure
What will happen if someone attempts to open the emergency door during flight?
People have tried to open the emergency door in mid-flight even though it is not possible. Every year, passengers are in the news for trying to open an emergency door mid-flight. Few weeks ago, a passenger made headlines for trying to do so. All Nippon Airways flight After an accident, a flight from Tokyo to Houston was diverted via Seattle. unruly passenger He kept trying to open all the emergency doors. Cabin crew members and other passengers were able to restrain the passenger using zip ties. After landing in Seattle the passenger was given to the FBI and local police. Last year, an American Airlines flight from Albuquerque was diverted to Chicago after a passenger tried to open a door during the flight. the plane returned to Albuquerque The law enforcement agencies were waiting.
The plane will try to land if it is not far from the final destination. This happened in 2024 on an American Airlines flight from Milwaukee to Dallas when a passenger tried to open the emergency door during the flight. In the process, a flight attendant was hurt and the man was arrested. charged with a federal crime. He could face up to 20-years in prison if convicted. The very least you can do is try to open an emergency exit door while in flight. the dreaded no-fly list.
At least one passenger appears to have opened the emergency door. A passenger on a flight from Daegu to Seoul, South Korea, was allegedly the one who opened the emergency exit next to him in 2023. At the time, the plane was 700 feet above the ground. The plane landed safely, but 12 people were taken to hospital for treatment of hyperventilation. The wind was hitting me so hard that I could not breathe. the passenger sitting next to him recalled in an interview with CNN. Asiana launched an immediate investigation to determine how the door could be opened. The airline also announced that it would no longer sell certain exit row seats for its Airbus A321-200 planes.
The fact is that the exit row doesn’t necessarily pose a danger. Some experts claim that the exit row is actually a plus. the safest seats on the plane. Cary Grant told T+L that if there were a safer seat, it would be near an emergency exit.
