The passenger allegedly told a flight attendant about “wanting and needing to exit the aircraft now” then jumped on her, injuring her neck and wrist, authorities said in a report.
Summary
Passengers on an American Airlines flight from Milwaukee to Dallas-Fort Worth restrained a Canadian man with duct tape after he allegedly attempted to open a cabin door mid-flight, claiming he was the “captain” and needed to exit.
The man became aggressive, injuring a flight attendant as he rushed toward the door.
Several passengers, including Doug McCright and Charlie Boris, subdued him, using duct tape to secure his hands and ankles.
Authorities detained the man upon landing, and the incident remains under investigation.
But ultimately I'm mostly just glad they kept him from opening the plane. That's the obvious first priority there. Damn.
It’s physically impossible to open a door on an airplane during most stages of the flight. The door first needs to move inward before opening, and the pressure differential is absurd. The handle would break long before you’d open the door. The only time it’s really possible is near the ground as you’re coming in to land or taking off (which did happen recently).
Boeing aircraft have this safety feature where it fucking immediately falls off so you can always get out if you are the Captain and need to escape from the bad duct tape wielders.
Typically for doors that don't open inward first, they have interlocks.
For example, the over wing doors on a 737ng don't open inward, they are actually spring loaded on a hinge and swing directly outward, there is a locking pawl that engages and disengages automatically under specific circumstances, requiring the squat switches on the landing gear to be engaged and the throttles to be in an idle position.
Opening the door during flight is attempted murder of everyone on board, fuck him. I hope it was hard to breathe the whole time and they put him in a nice padded cell for a while.
Considering he was claiming to be the captain and trying to get off the plane it seems highly likely he was having some kind of mental breakdown. He needs proper medical care and a psychological evaluation, not summary execution. Yes he was a danger to himself and others, but that doesn't mean he's guilty of attempted murder. A padded room might be appropriate depending on the psych evaluation, but wishing suffering on him without knowing the full situation is too much.
I mean, it's an attempt, but it's in no way possible to actually do. That's thousands of pounds of pressure on that door. I'd bet on the handle breaking off before the door opens mid-flight.
Well, not from the door opening, you are right (pressure difference and such).
But he already injured a flight attendant, so I guess he wasn't going to say "oh well it doesn't open, I tried, I'll sit down quietly now".
That depends on where in the flight he tried to open the door. The article says mid flight but that could mean anything.
Above 10,000 ft he wouldn't be able to open the door because of the pressure difference but below that and he would have no problems since the cabin isn't pressurized and the doors aren't locked with any key or anything.
People’s brains are so baked by the dopamine slot machine of the internet that the most compelling part has to be put in the first couple words or people won’t read it.
when it's an airplane we call it speed tape and its used all over the aircraft, mostly by maintenance, to keep the plane together. Don't worry about it.
This probably wasn't duct tape anyway, but special tape for passenger restraint, similar to zip ties, that is stored on board for use in this type of situation
when it’s an airplane we call it speed tape and its used all over the aircraft, mostly by maintenance, to keep the plane together. Don’t worry about it.
Duct tape is used on airplanes all the time, so it's readily available & multi-purpose. While it looks super sketchy, it's actually pretty decent for a temporary fix until a proper repair can be implemented. Sometimes they're criticized for leaving the temporary duct tape fixes on far too long. 🙃🙃🙃🙃
There was a CSI episode with a situation similar to this. Of course, since it's CSI, the way that turned out was the mentally ill person was killed (and the episode was about the passengers/crew subtly covering for each other).
Nice case of how in real life, people avoid harm when possible, and in fiction, people are all secretly ruthless savages out for each other's blood.
Oh; I should say, in fiction, and for police, who similarly live in fiction-land.