What would happen if you tried to open the emergency exit door mid-flight
While the likelihood of someone successfully opening the emergency exit door on an airplane mid-flight is statistically very low, sometimes you can't help but wonder whether it could cause some type of "Final Destination"-style disaster.
If someone could even manage to open the door mid-flight, they'd have to withstand more than 24,000 pounds of pressure, according to the GeoBeats video above. That amount of weight is the equivalent of six cars or 20 polar bears.
"The higher interior pressurization actually seals the door to the frame," said Douglas Moss, a pilot for United Airlines told Fortune. Even beyond this external pressure, the doors are held together with lock bolts that are controlled by the pilots in the cockpit.
This is generally beyond the physical ability of humans, but hypothetically if someone was strong enough, in the best case scenario it would be loud, foggy and the temperature would drop quickly. Worst case, it would cause "explosive decompression" — which is exactly what it sounds like: Hurricane-like winds and thousands of pounds of pressure.
Opening the emergency exit doors outside of an emergency is also illegal. In 2018, a 25-year-old was charged $11,000 after opening the door while his flight was deplaning because he felt stuffy and hot. Earlier the same year, a 50-year-old man who was bored waiting for his flight to disembark opened the emergency exit door and climbed out onto the wing of the plane before getting arrested.
