Woman jailed for trying to open the airplane door mid flight | Hacker News Reader

Woman jailed for trying to open the airplane door mid flight

independent.co.uk

10 pointsjoaosardinha17 comments

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.

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

Ah yes, the alcohol excuse. Who would have thought that allowing alcohol on flights wasn't the best idea?

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?

> 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.

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

Shoot the plane down before it hits a building/populated area I would assume.

>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!

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.

86K pounds which would be approx. US $111,450. Agreed, that seems less.

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

Can you actually open an airplane door mid flight?

nope - atleast not on your typical commercial passenger aircraft after certain height is achieved. The air pressure difference between inside of aircraft and outside makes it impossible.

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.

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?

Most doors on aircraft open inward, so think of it like a drain plug where the pressure holds it in place.

Edit: To clarify, they may swing outward, but they open inward first.

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

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