Can aircraft doors open in flight?

Question

I understand that it's impossible at high altitudes, but what if the plane is near sea level? They're probably locked unless the plane is on the ground, too, right?

Just a note, I am talking about very low altitudes where there is only a slight difference in air pressure.

Answer 1

Yeah, they can be opened.

Answer 2

Even at very low altitudes there is a slight over-pressure in the aircraft cabin due to the climate control system. Typically this is about 1 PSI or so. That is enough to exert about a ton of pressure on the doors and keep them firmly closed even if the lock mechanism is defeated. Most modern aircraft use an auto locking system that engages any time that the inside pressure is greater than the outside pressure by more than about .25 PSI.

Ignore the above answer. He's clueless. The doors open INWARDS first before rotating outwards. Any positive pressure will prevent them from opening at ANY altitude. At 35,000 feet, the force is over 5 tons on the typical aircraft door keeping it quite firmly closed.

The arm/disarm lever or switch has nothing to do with the door locks. When it's in the armed position, the inflatable slide will deploy automatically when the door is opened. In the disarmed position, it won't deploy automatically.

Answer 3

Low alt and even at sea level the plane is pressurized with about 1 psi, does not sound like much but it's enough to plug the door and seal the cabin. The doors are either pwrd slides that go in then out or swing out manually. DC-10's are so big the power slide up.
The Boeing designers use those features as a failsafe method to plug the door instead of capping the door. Some European mfg's use the cap method in their doors and windows.
The 737 uses the plug swing in then out system using cams and rollers to open. You can open the door with 1 psi with the handle but it is in a "overcenter" position and if your strong enough with the handle you can bust the seal and pressure will release.
There was one instance that I know of that a F/A somehow panicked and while the aircraft was on the ground he blew the door open and that 1psi took him out of the a/c and on the ramp. That's another question somebody can answer!

Answer 4

Yes, when the airplane is depressurized, the inward opening, plug-type doors can be opened in flight.

This is an emergency smoke removal procedure whereby the cabin crew unlock and secure, in the partially open position, several doors to evacuate any smoke or fumes from the cabin. Of course, this is all done after the airplane has been depressurized.

Under normal circumstances, during pressurized flight, the doors can not be opened. Even if the door handle was rotated with sufficient force to move it, the actual door would remain seated and closed due to the pressure differential.

Answer 5

Well my friends, you are probably all going to have a hard time believing this, but I am absolutely telling the truth with this story.

One time I took off in a C-5 Galaxy out of Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. We reached about 5,000 feet when the flight engineer told me that we weren't pressurizing. We sent another aircrew member to go see what the problem was.

The way the C-5 is configured there is the cockpit, two bunkrooms behind the cockpit, a "relief crew compartment", a galley and lavatory, and another, darkened crew compartment with no windows for crew members wanting to sleep there. If you go down the ladder you will enter the main cargo bay. If you walk back to the back of the cargo bay you can go up a different ladder that takes you up to the "troop compartment". The troop compartment consists of 75 seats. Interestingly, you cannot access the troop compartment from the aft flight deck. Anyway, the crewmember that we sent to go investigate checked out the aft flight deck, went down into the cargo bay, went all the way to the back of the cargo bay, went up the aft ladder leading to the troop compartment, and discovered that we had a door completely removed from the hinges, sitting on the floor beside where it should have been installed. When we asked the aircrew member if he saw anything he said "I have a great big view of the Atlantic Ocean".

I can think of five reasons why this shouldn't have happened:.

1. One of the loadmasters didn't complete his preflight checklist which specifically requires him to check the operation of all doors and hatches, (he was later removed from flying status pending further training).

2. When I taxiied out, I turned in a direction such that the ground maintenance personnel couldn't see the side of the airplane that the door was missing from. Ground maintenance personnel at military fields are specifically supposed to look you over to make sure you don't have any glaring problems as you taxi out.

3. At all times, the right side of my plane was facing the control tower so they couldn't see that my door was missing on the left side. Also at military fields, tower controllers are specifically supposed to look over all airplanes to make sure they don't have any glaring defects.

4. We have an annunciator in the cockpit that should have warned us of this condition. However, the annunciator can (and was) bypassed by maintenance personnel which prevented us from knowing about this problem.

5. Ground maintenance personnel had wrongly annotated in the aircraft forms that the door had been removed, reinstalled, and ops checked good. As such, I didn't have any reason to investigate before the flight. Yes it had been removed but no, it hadn't been reinstalled or ops checked. That particular maintenance personnel was disciplined for this.

A serious chain of events occurred that caused this whole thing to happen. Often times, when there is a major aircraft accident, there is a chain of events that takes place and at anytime along the way, one of several things could have broken the chain. While unrelated, a remarkable similarity can be made here as to how major aircraft accidents occur. Part of what pilots train for is proper communication with one another. We call this "Crew Resource Management" (CRM). Often times a chain of events leading to mishaps can be caused because one pilot knows something that the other doesn't and hence the need for continual practice and training for CRM. Aircraft simulator instructors are experts at finding and creating scenarios in simulators that will cause mishap chains to occur. Aircrew members, such as pilots, frequently have to go through such simulator training. I dread going to the simulator every time. It's like learning lessons by getting kicked in the teeth. However, you always walk away from every simulator a better pilot for having gone through it.

Anyway, even though my "answer" is long, I thought some of you might get a kick out of it.

Answer 6

The main doors can be opened but that is done by the crew. The emergency doors can be opened but with a lot of effort cos the ratio of the pressure of the outside to the airplane's cabin is 5 : 15.
So if your a strong man go ahead do it. Also there is a thing called arming and disarming the doors during flight they are all armed so that any prankster can't open them. Before they are opened they should be disarmed.

Answer 7

If the doors can't be opened then how do skydivers jump out?

Sorry for the sarcasm. The doors can most certainly be opened on many aircraft. In fact small aircraft with a door on each side can even be steered by pushing the doors out.

Answer 8

I would LIKE to think that aircraft doors automatically lock before the jet leaves the ground...-& that there are sensors in the cockpit that the pilot checks before he takes off. But hey, I only slept at a Holiday Inn last night, so I really have no idea!

Answer 9

Its quite nearly impossible to open aircraft doors in flight due to pressure and wind flow; its like trying to open car door whilst speeding at 220km per hour.

It'll only open if there is a critical problem with the door and it drops off it's hinges.

Answer 10

They can be opened. In fact, the higher you are the easier it will be! (If your aircraft is presurized). The cabin presure would FORCE the door open IF you could unlock/unlatch it. I'm sure the designers take Kooks into consideration and have complicated locking mechanisms so that the door can't be opened accidently.

Answer 11

Yes they can. I was curious like you, and I opened a door on an American Airlines flight crossing the Pacific. I was sucked out of the plane and fell 39,000 feet to my death.