There's been a lot of hype on the drunk that tried to open a cabin door on a United Airlines flight headed to Las Vegas. Somehow reality escaped the news. The reality is, it would be impossible for him to open the door. You see, the airplane was pressurized and ALL airliners are required to have plug type doors in the pressure vessel. Plug type door means the door fits the hole like your grandmothers bathtub stopper filled the drain. The door is bigger than the hole, so step one is to pull the door inward so that the door before the next step to move the door out of the way. The plane was most likely pressurized to somewhere between 4 and 8 psi. To do the math, figure how many square inches are on the door surface. Multiply that number by how many pounds of pressure and that's how hard he would have to pull to open the door. Let's say the door is 5 feet by 3 feet. That's 60 inches by 36 inches. 60 times 36 is 2160 square inches. If the plane was pressurized to 1 psi, it would take over a ton of force to pull the door off of it's stops. So realistically, if the plane was at 6 psi, the guy would need over 6 tons of pulling force to open the door. Also, in realistic terms, the door handle or it's associated linkage would break long before the one ton threshold was reached. Another reality is that most bad guys try to push the door open. ALL plug type doors must retract inwards before opening.

I'm not saying the bad guy didn't need to be stopped. I'm not saying he shouldn't be restrained. In fact, I'm all for beating him senseless because you never know what his ultimate plans were. He crossed the line of "attempting" to endanger lives, not to mention the federal laws.

I do not know if there has been and increase in incidents or just an increase in reporting but it seems like we have more nutty people on planes.

When they actually get a credible no fly list and a reasonably effective way of checking it, they should think about adding on those people who have gone nuts in public previously so they do not endanger themselves and the other passengers.

It seems like in almost all these cases, there is a history of previously mental issues.

Eric

Maybe we need a double door on planes. Thus, once you pass the first door it seals and locks behind you and then you can open the other door and drop out. One less person causing issues on airplanes (haha). Maybe even by the cockpit to allow ejection of anyone attempting to enter the cockpit.

My view is that people who can't play nice in public need to be kept out of public, rather than make excuses to turn 'em back loose. But that's not popular amongst the lobbyists that shape our society.

Yet another Darwin award candidate. The crew should have brought the aircraft down to 12,000 feet, depressurize the cabin, let the fool accomplish his goal and deplane at that altitude and claim his Darwin award.