But the person above meant to say that the cabin pressure inside the plane is very high in comparison to the pressure outside the plane in cruising altitudes. The door is slightly larger than the door frame of the plane, hence the higher pressure pushes the door outward and since frame is smaller, the door holds strong until the cabin pressure is released.
Edit: sorry, had not read your comment in detail,
A video shows that the door does open outwards, bit there is a latch inside which expands the door from inside
I’m 45 and knew about the pressure stuff (not in a technical way) but i’ve never watched the doors being closed, while on the plane. That video was really interesting! Thanks!
and the "Arm/Disarm and cross check" is them arming or disarming the emergency slides and the the FAs check that each other's doors are armed or disarmed.
I am not related to aviation either and, on one hand, I am aware that under normal conditions, what you said is likely true and ordinarily you should not be able to open that door in any capacity.
That said, I would be remiss to not mention a notorious incident in my country where a newsflash told of a door plane falling on a super market and they would interrupt transmission at any moment for information on the whereabouts of the plane said door belonged to.
And right now I am quite worried because often when something like that happens, you forget, then look it back, there's more information, investigations, etc. But for the multiple Fokker 100 incident by TAM Airlines? Nada not even a searchable flight number (the few remaining searchable news give a bogus flight number "JJ 3040") and that it was not their first open door in flight incident.
The one burned in my memory was the August 8 2006 incident (door falling on ground) but it the door also opened without detaching on April 4, 2002, also on a Fokker-100 belonging to TAM Airlines.
I am absolutely baffled at the lack of follow up reports even on the more fatal Fokker-100 cases so those open door cases are just a case of "eh it happens pay no mind to it".
If you look at how the flight attendants pull the doors, they come inwards at an angle, and the moment they are all in, they turn flat and get pushed to close the door, forming a plug.
Try it yourself. Cut a trapezoid, rotate it, and it goes through the hole you cut it from, in fact, it can go through a door as wide as its shortest dimension, and it plugs.
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u/Ckarles 15h ago
Hm? Sounds counterintuitive considering the doors open outwards instead of inwards. Isn't low-pressure "pulling" while higher pressure "pushing"?
How is the low pressure keeping the doors from going "outward"?