Smoking causes potential air crashes - The scientific proof

[mcquiggd]

Bloody europeans, ought to be sent to the middle east, the bloody lot of them!

Send the Euro-peons back where they came from.

[zathras]

Just one more proof that smoking can kill hundreds of people in a plane crash. We must take action now now now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4456076.stm

Smoker tried to open plane door

The woman was arrested when the plane landed in Australia
A French woman has admitted attempting to open an aeroplane door mid-flight so that she could smoke a cigarette.
Sandrine Helene Sellies, 34, who has a fear of flying, had drunk alcohol and taken sleeping tablets ahead of the flight from Hong Kong to Brisbane.

She was seen on the Cathay Pacific plane walking towards a door with an unlit cigarette and a lighter.

She then began tampering with the emergency exit until she was stopped by a flight attendant.

Defence lawyer Helen Shilton said her client had no memory of what had happened on the flight on Saturday, and that she had a history of sleepwalking.

She pleaded guilty to endangering the safety of an aircraft at Brisbane Magistrates Court and was given a 12-month A$1,000 (£429) good behaviour bond - she will forfeit the money if she commits another offence.

The French tourist was at the start of a three-week holiday in Australia with her husband.

Double whammy then because the air presure differential would have made it nearly impossible to open the door. It was explained in detail in some letters sent to the Register ie

Airliners typically cruise with about an 8PSI pressure differential between inside and outside. It saves having the passengers wear pressure suits and oxygen masks.

Let's guess that an airliner's entry door opening is 32 X 74 inches. That's 2730 square inches, times 8PSI holding the door into its tapered gasket seat, or nearly 22,000 lb (10,000Kg for the metric fans). It would be a bit of a struggle to pull the door INward, as is required to open it. Even if the passenger's nicotine addiction were strong enough, the door handle probably isn't.

[Joe Black]

Double whammy then because the air presure differential would have made it nearly impossible to open the door. It was explained in detail in some letters sent to the Register ie

As long as you're not on some third-world airline which is flying 25 year old jets which didn't always have such doors or weren't modded...Iran Air perhaps...

"I wonder if Stelios gave them vouchers as compensation..?"

mcquiggd, if it was Ryan Air then they'd probably be charging for the extra air-conditioning.

Actually remember seeing the story on the news years ago. Was quite impressed at the time that the plane held together and apparently out of the 3 stewardesses standing at the time only one was actually lost when the plane blew open.

Edit: hmm...a new thread perhaps