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Passenger writes of man attempting to open a door on an aircraft

Passenger writes of man attempting to open a door on an aircraft

Yesterday, as some may be aware, a man threatening about a bomb was subdued by passengers on a flight that was diverted to Denver.

A passenger who was apparantly on Flight 735 yesterday wrote about his experience on Flyertalk.com:

I was in 3C on Flight 735 and saw everything that happend….and it was A LOT scarier to all of us in first than the news is reporting.

Situation started after meal was served and “Chronicles of Narnia had been on for about an hour (never will watch that movie without thinking about this flight). An hispanic man walked up to first, kind of shuffling with a hanging head and a slack expression. I looked up when he walked by, thought he looked weird but not weird enough to worry about. I went back to the movie and the next thing I know I hear our flight attendant yelling, “No sir, Stop that Sir!” and then “get away from there”! The passenger in 2D stated he could see that the guy had indeed been able to move the handle on the main exit door all the way over and that he could see the inner door lifting and moving a bit. The flight attendant rushed forward to push back on the door trying to close it. It was at that moment that some pretty cool guys in 1B, 1C stood up grabbed the guy and had him in want I think was considered a choke hold. 1D, another big guy (all 3 men who helped to subdue the man were a good size fortunately) was also helping to hold the guy down.

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This is another great example of how blogs, or a forum in this case, can provide better context and a more interesting story than the mainstream media can produce.

View Comments (5)
  • An another great example how irrational fear makes people see things that aren’t there and then later tell stories of a fish 10m long and eyes 3m appart.

    Doors do not open and cannot be opened during flight on pretty much any modern airliner.

  • Is the new BH coming soon? Man, this blog lately is tough to follow. C’mon guys, I’m expecting big things from your promises. Let’s get it going.

  • Good point JB! What many may not realize, modern aircraft doors have an inward opening design. This causes them to be held, very firmly I might add, in place during pressurized flight. The cabin pressure is in addition to the inter-locking mechanism that is engaged during flight as well.

    Just a little fun with the math here…..
    Making some assumptions, let’s say there is 8 psi cabin pressure (that’s 8 Pounds per square inch). Now let’s say the door is roughly 6 ft (72 in) by 4 ft (48 in) gives you an area of 3456 sq. in. At 8 PSI, thats over 27.5 *TONS* of force holding that door closed. That’s in addition to the lock. Now, the witness said the 3 guys that helped were big guys. This hispanic dude must have been the friggin’ Hulk to make any progress on that door. Soooo…

    Richer Brat – relax, watch your movie, munch on the peanuts and enjoy your flight. :-)

    PS I am not a structural or aerospace engineer so please forgive me if the math is not perfect ;-)

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