Passenger Tries To Open Door Mid-Flight

[Midnight Mike]

Passenger Tries To Open Door Mid-Flight
DENVER, Aug. 26, 2007

(CBS/AP) A passenger tried to open a door on a Frontier Airlines flight en route to New York on Saturday morning but was subdued by airline staff and passengers.

The passenger was duct taped to his seat for the remainder of the flight, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston.

Airline spokesman Joe Hodas said there were 128 passengers and five crew on the plane.

He said police and Transport Security Administration staff met flight 514 and took the man, whose name was not released, into custody at LaGuardia Airport in New York.

Hodas said the man could not have opened the door even if he had not been subdued. "You need special training to open the door," he said. "We did have a passenger who acted inappropriately and was subdued," he said in a telephone interview.

Passenger Bobby Vigil of Estes Park told KUSA-TV the man had been acting strangely throughout the flight.

"I turn around and hear the flight attendant yelling for someone to help her because he opened the back door of the plane. The whole rest of the flight, all the way in, he was yelling and trying to bite the tape, and they ended up restraining him with an extra lap belt," said Vigil.

The disturbed passenger is being treated in a mental hospital and has not been charged, Pinkston reports.

[PhilDernerJr]

Why was he duct taped? I thought all planes had restraints?

[AirtrafficController]

When in doubt, use duct tape. :D

[emshighway]

Duct tape fixes everything!!!

[Derf]

......Hodas said the man could not have opened the door even if he had not been subdued. "You need special training to open the door," he said.....

:lol: :lol: Special training...to open a door in a presurised aircraft???? Muahahahahahahah

You only need training to disarm the slide....or did I miss the"Evac at FL38 from a passenger aircraft for dummies" book

[PhilDernerJr]

A door cannot be opened once the aircraft is pressurized. In fact, I believe even if the aircraft is on the ground and pressurized, a disarmed door cannot be opened.

[Midnight Mike]

A door cannot be opened once the aircraft is pressurized. In fact, I believe even if the aircraft is on the ground and pressurized, a disarmed door cannot be opened.

Yep, once the door is pressurized, that window/door is not going to open.

Saying that, keep all the psychos away from the doors/windows, last thing you want them to do is start banging on the window with a crash axe.....

[PhilDernerJr]

So let's say the aircraft goes off the end of the runway and people need to evac, but the cabin is pressurized. How exactly does that work?

[adam613]

So let's say the aircraft goes off the end of the runway and people need to evac, but the cabin is pressurized. How exactly does that work?

It doesn't.

(FedEx Flight 1406 made an emergency landing after an inflight fire, and once they landed they couldn't open the door because the aircraft was still pressurized.)

[PhilDernerJr]

So if those in the flight deck are incapacitated, hundreds of passengers are just SOL?

[stuart schechter]

Is it possible for emergency crews to open the door from the outside?

[Iberia A340-600]

There is a picture on page 24 of the aircraft after the fire had been put out. The picture really interests me because I've seen the charred remains of the nose section at SWF for a couple of years (however it has since been removed) and have never seen the full aircraft after the incident. Quite interesting to see.

[Winglets747]

[quote=Midnight Mike]

A door cannot be opened once the aircraft is pressurized. In fact, I believe even if the aircraft is on the ground and pressurized, a disarmed door cannot be opened.

Yep, once the door is pressurized, that window/door is not going to open.[/quote:dfa97]

I've read of a few incidents (at least one or two on AA) where a plane pulls up to the gate, a flight attendant is standing by the door, a gate agent opens the door, and the flight attendant collapses and dies because the cabin was still pressurized and the sudden force of air knocks the flight attendant out. So can doors actually be opened (but only from the outside?), or were these situations more along the lines of the pressure inside the cabin not equaling the outside?

Also, Airbus doors on the outside have instructions to check to see if there is a red light in the window, as that would indicate the cabin is still pressurized, and the door should not be opened. But why bother putting that warning there if the door cannot be opened at all?

[PhilDernerJr]

I couldn't imagine anyone having the strength to open a pressurized door. Although, I've seen an F/A open a door right after the cabin was de-pressurized, and still felt a little "suction".

The biggest danger at the jetbridge is if the door is armed. If the F/A does not disarm it and opens the door, anyone standing in the jetbridge could EASILY die from the slide opening up as fast as it does.

[kc2aqg]

Actually Winglets747, I think one of the incidents you are referring to on AA was back in 2000 when an A300 had mechanical problems after takeoff from MIA, and after returning to the airport, one of the flight attendants "prematurely" (don't quote me on that) opened the forward cabin door and was sucked out of the cabin and killed on impact with the ground. Not entirely sure of the workings of cabin doors or the exact circumstances of the incident, but I thought this might be relevant. Picture on a.net: http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=0122845&size=L