4 Dangers of Opening Plane Door or Window Mid-Flight

A collage of a South Korean Asiana Airlines flight whose emergency door was opened mid-flight and the opened door after the plane landed on May 26, 2023.
A collage of a South Korean Asiana Airlines flight whose emergency door was opened mid-flight and the opened door after the plane landed on May 26, 2023.
Kenyans.co.ke

A passenger was apprehended after being accused of opening the door of an Asiana Airlines flight in South Korea, on Friday, May 26.

Police stated that the man endangered the lives of all passengers on the plane, then 700 feet in the air. 

Luckily, all 194 passengers landed safely. Herein is why opening a plane door mid-flight could be disastrous.

Breathing difficulty

A screen-grab of a man who opened the emergency plane door of an Asiana Airlines flight in South Korea on May 26, 2023.
A screen-grab of a man who opened the emergency plane door of an Asiana Airlines flight in South Korea on May 26, 2023.
Kenyans.co.ke

Passengers of the Airbus A321-200 jet from Jeju Island to Daegu City in South Korea panicked when the door was opened.

With strong winds buffeting the passengers, many experienced breathing difficulties. Some of the passengers fainted due to lack of air.

"It was chaos with people close to the door appearing to faint one by one and flight attendants calling out for doctors on board through broadcasting," one passenger told Yonhap News Agency, a South Korean media site.

Decompression

In a pressurised aircraft, opening a plane door at cruising altitude is nearly impossible.

According to airline pilot and author Patrick Smith, a plane experiences 3.6 kilograms of pressure on every inch of the fuselage.

In this case, the decompression was not as powerful as always expected because the plane was around 700 feet from the ground.

When the door opens, the internal pressure of the plane drops rapidly. This is called decompression.

Decompression could lead to hypoxia which is brought about by a lack of oxygen. In many planes, oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling to prevent hypoxia.

Symptoms of hypoxia include dimmed vision, unconsciousness, and sluggish thinking. Additionally, cabin temperature would fall to ice-cold levels in an instant.

Suction Pull

Due to decompression, lose items would fly out of the plane. Even passengers not fastened their seat belts may be sucked out of the plane.

Luckily, all passengers were belted up in the South Korean incident. The flying debris inside the plane could lead to injuries to the passengers.

If the plane is at cruising altitude, the suction could lead to the plane being ripped apart.

An image of a plane taking off at an airport.
An image of a plane taking off at an airport.
Photo
Flight deck

Fall

In certain cases, the rapid decompression and suction of a pressurised plane could lead to disastrous outcomes.

An open door could lead to the plane being ripped apart and nosedive and loss of lives as the plane could be ripped apart.

It is worth noting that the door was only opened because the plane was about to land and was at a low altitude.

On May 27, Yonhap News Agency reported that the man who opened the plane door stated that he did it because he felt suffocated and wanted to get off the plane quickly.

He also told the police that he was stressed after losing his job.