Emergency exit opens during Swiss flight!
 

Swiss flight operated by Helvetic Airways from Zurich to Manchester.
About fifteen minutes before landing, the emergency exit handle came down, the door opened a bit, and passengers could see outside!

http://www.20min.ch/dyim/e5422c/M600...topelement.jpg

20 minutes - La sortie de secours s'ouvre en plein vol - Faits divers

Amazing! Instead of someone getting up to push it shut, they just sit there and take photos!

Regardless of the headline according to the article a spokesperson said (last paragraph, I paraphrase) a cover/handle/trim panel(?) became detached and/or moved during the flight, the door itself didn't actually move until landing.

When they do, they at least have their safety belt on.
How would a SLF like me know if the emergency exit could pop out while I fumbled with the handle?
I would expect the highly trained professionals in the cabin or cockpit to handle the situation.
Per

I suppose the cover could fall off in flight. But the handle WILL NOT move unless it's pulled!

Absolutely no chance whatsoever of this over wing exit door budging whilst the a/c is pressurised!

There's a little more to this story.

@ancient mariner: er, because you read the safety card perhaps?

I love it when passengers make a big show of ignoring all the safety precautions and sit reading the newspaper during the safety brief and flight preparations - as if to prove how 'hard' they are.

Few years ago I was sat on an overwing exit on a 738 and witnessed the guy across from me pull the panel out and use the handel to hang his coat on - we were in the climb at the time.
Crew dealt with it (seemed no issue) but the guy protested as he couldn't see his iPad screen and their was no window blind - what a :mad:

Sure the door would have been locked (above a % n1 or something...not rated) but during the decent a few hours later I couldn't take my eyes off the door.

That handle has been pulled.

Lots of football fans on the flight to Manchester.

As has been said, the door is a plug type and cannot open whilst the aircraft is pressurised.

----------------
Well, I have read enough of Aincient Mariner's posts to know that he was only jabbing to see who squeaked.

His point is valid. Let's say I am the only one who sees the handle popped down.
Let's say I reach up to re-stow it, being a good passenger and all and having watched the briefing and read the card, I know all about emergency exit handles.
So someone sees me with my hand on the handle and screams "look, he is trying to open the exit"...well, that's me in the poo.
Lets say, whilst I try to re-stow the handle, the door pops out (If it can or can't is incidental to this tale)...that's me in even deeper poo.

Good, innit

I think it is to be considered a good thing if in a situation like this, SLF do not interfere - instinct might dictate that if the CC aren't touching it, and aren't incapacitated to do so, and shouting at us to do it, we probably shouldn't touch it either.

I do read the safety cards, but it only tells me how to open the emergency exits, not to secure them.
I am one of those who will put everything aside and, out of courtesy seek eye contact with the FA during safety briefings.
Heck, I can still tell you verbatim how to open the emergency exit on a Chinese Tu 154, open the container, throw out and inflate the chute. ;)
Flights like that, in those areas, have taught me to pay attention.
Per

I was on that flight yesterday morning...
 

... and I was sitting two rows ahead of the door that opened (I actually got the door-seat 13B assigned on-line but changed to 11B just to be able to store my bag under the seat before me :-) ). However, few minutes after the announcement that we were approaching Manchester, the handle cover fell (we all heard the noise) without being touched by anybody and the handle half opened - the aircraft was full and any passenger would have noticed an intentional action to open it!!! -
The flight assistant came to tell everybody that everything was quite OK "Just don't touch it, please!".
During the landing the upper part of the door (or at least the part I could see looking back from my seat) actually opened about 3-4 cm - and the air noise became much audible - to close back when the speed (and air pressure) decrease at ground. Yet most of the people (e.g. the ones sitting in the first 10 rows) didn't even notice the incident. There was no panic at all.
Sort of thrilling experience :-)

I'm guessing this was a Fokker 100. If so, this a regular occurence. Depending on the exact fit, the handle for over wing hatch may or may not be covered. But either way, the handle is wire locked with copper wire in an attempt to prevent this sort of thing happening. But the wire is regularly broken and the handle can fall to the open position. As previous posters have pointed out, it only becomes an issue when the pressure differential falls to zero. Then the hatch may fall in. It's just very noisy and engineers are required to re-apply the locking wire.

PM

Yes, it was.

Assuming a light load of un-awake passengers on a late night takeoff how would this be noticed after takeoff rotation? annunciated or air noise?

I'm also a little concerned about passenger reactions. Would there be a percentage that pulled on the handle?

Am I the only one that finds the above part quite disturbing?

A report in the MEN quotes a Helvetic spokesman as saying that the aircraft "had just come from a major maintenance check", though its flight history would suggest that it had been back in service for at least a few days prior to the incident.

Scary welcome for fans heading to United match as 'plane door opens' on landing at Manchester Airport - Manchester Evening News

why disturbing? noisy door seals are extremely common, even in more modern a/c. And while 3-4cm (if that is accurate) sounds like a lot, this incident seems rather innocent and not dramatic at all. There's been door leaks in F100's leading to decompression (it's not such a big a/c), and even entire doors have been lost :) I'd say that would be more disturbing. As PM said, F100 doors are a known issue, not only overwing, if I remember correctly old F'ers with integrated stairs had doors held by bolts, not plug-type doors (DC10 cargo hatches anyone?). I believe some fixes have been applied (?), and now there's only 3-4 cm openings, that's a major improvement :)

Possible Conversation with Investigator???
 

Investigator: Please tell us what happened...

SLC: When I boarded, I read the safety card, just in case. I always do so. Part way through the flight it began to get bumpy and a read the card again. About 20 minutes before landing, it got Very Bumpy.

Investigator: The flight crew reported very light turb. Please go on.

SLC: I thought it was very rough. I was concerned that we might crash during landing, so I re-read the emergency door operating instructions. After another heavy jolt, I thought that I'd better practice and I pulled the release handle. The door started hissing.

Investigator: How many times have you flown in an Exit Row?

SLC: This was my second flight on any airplane. It looked like I was the only one reading the emergency instructions, so I thought I should be prepared.

Investigator: (Shaking head while leaving room....) God help us all!:ouch::ouch:

Way back when, during flight testing of the 767/CF6-80C2, we did a fairly high speed simulated RTO with full reverse thrust. At the time they hadn't yet finalized the reverse flow and there was significant reverse flow impingement on the fuselage. During the RTO, I could see daylight past the seals around the emergency exit door :rolleyes:. It also got rather noisy...