If you're an anxious flyer, or just a curious person, you've definitely wondered this before: what actually would happen if someone opened the plane door mid-flight?
Just this month there have been news reports of passengers trying to do that very thing, which is quite frankly, terrifying. Thankfully the cabin crew have been able to stop them before they reached the door every time.
But what would happen if they hadn't been stopped?
Well, according to Travel and Leisure, we can all relax a little as opening a cabin door while the plane is at cruising altitude is physically impossible.
Jason Rabinowitz, aviation blogger, told Travel and Leisure: "When at cruising altitude, the pressure difference between the outside of the plane and the inside of the plane, which is pressurised, creates a situation where the door cannot open."
Phew.
In fact, the pressure pushing against the plane's interior is so strong that it would take a hydraulic jack to even get close to opening the door. If it did happen, which, remember, is impossible, then Rabinowitz told Travel and Leisure that this would cause an "explosive decompression".
At this point pilots would make a dramatic emergency descent and oxygen masks would drop from the ceiling.
Kudos to the plane engineers that have made this situation very rare indeed.
h/t Travel and Leisure
