An out of control passenger, foaming at the mouth, tried to open the exit door of an airplane at 30,000 feet.
This could have been a disaster, but fortunately, there was a hero on board.
Give it up for practicing Muslim Jabir Hazziez Jr.
(h/t Steve Benen)
Did he get a T-Shirt?
It is sad that his religion is worth mentioning. I fantasize doing a heroic act and attributing it to my atheism.
You could get a T-Shirt to.
It’s physically impossible to open an airliner door at altitude because the doors are designed to be held closed by the pressure differential between the inside of the aircraft and the atmosphere. At 30,000 feet, the door would be held closed by several tons worth of force. No human would have the strength to move it.
That’s reassuring, assuming it’s correct, but I think we can assume Mr. Hazziez didn’t know it, and was sincerely concerned.
I say “assuming it’s correct” because the cabin is maintained at a higher pressure than is outside the plane and the door opens outward, so I’m a bit confused about how the pressure differential would help keep the door shut.
I certainly hope the fasten-seatbelt sign wasn’t on.
It’s true that no one could open the door at 30,000 feet, but it’s also true that most people don’t know that (sadly), and the sight of someone attempting to open the door could cause widespread panic, which would be harmful, so I don’t think it’s bad to use reasonable, non-lethal force to move the guy away from the door. Whether the person who did so was motivated by Islam, Christianity, atheism, Pastafarianism, or the desire for 15 minutes of fame is wholly irrelevant. When I read this, I had a brief hope that it would cause cognitive dissonance in some of the anti-Islamic so-called “Christians” who predominate in American society, but then I remembered that they already lose no sleep over amassing huge quantities of material wealth while claiming to worship a man who advised the rich to give all their money to the poor.