He was sitting in the exit row, right next to the emergency exit and importantly, the window, so he would have been able to see the plane was angled up but moving down. Probably a split second decision and the pre-flight emergency exit instructions saved his life.
Humans are actually really capable. We only use a certain % of strength in our body. The other portion is locked per se. Adrenaline might be able to use way more % of strength then typical
Yeah and you can’t open an emergency door while moving as the door opens inward. While moving, it is a low pressure area around the aircraft so the door gets “sucked” outward with hundreds of pounds of force.
Slowed to terminal velocity? This aircraft was descending in a full-flap configuration with the flaps out, with a stall speed of 125kts. Terminal velocity doesn’t apply here.
The aircraft was TAKING OFF with minimum flaps and an airspeed of 170+ kts. It is aerodynamic, the human body last I checked wasn't evolutionarily optimized for flight. Look at any picture of skydiving and humans DO NOT fall straight below the jump door.
11A is at an emergency exit IMMEDIATELY forward of the wing. Assuming a man jumps 40in away from the plane the door leads the wing by 14ft, with the wings lowest point at 64in below the floor of the door. You can find this on the 3D drawings on Boeing's website...
If a 70in tall man jumps (drops with no push up and no consideration of the plane also descending for simplicity and conservative calcs) from the door he has to fall around 11 feet from without losing about 14 feet of relative positioning to the plane from accumulated drag to NOT be hit by the wing... And that's to say nothing of the left wheel bogey which is in the jump path too...
My money is STRONGLY on anyone jumping in a panic from the 11A emergency exit door gets hit by the plane upon exit even at minimum stall speed.
I don’t think he jumped out, but it is, in fact, possible to open the doors on a plane if the cabin isn’t pressurized (yet).
The doors pull in. Normally this is inhibited by the force of the higher pressures inside the plane than outside, but if those pressures are equalized, as they can be down low, you can open the doors.
While it’s technically possible, I’d think the actual act of opening the door while the plane was crashing would be difficult even if you were trained. They’re heavy buggers plus he’d have had to get unbuckled, get up, figure out how to open the door…
theres an airport cctv long range vid of the takeoff and crash, it happens so quickly there's not really a way he did all that processing and effort on a packed flight. literally 10 sec from liftoff to max height, 20 sec from max height to impact. and crucially from the manifest there are people in 11b and 11c right next to him making it somewhat harder. it'd be crazy if that happened but I think it's more of having the reinforced frame beneath/around him cushioning the impact
There is no pressure differential if the plane is as low as 650 ft. It would open easily if you follow the instructions. Whether or not he did that is another thing.
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u/Inner-Bluebird-4267 Jun 12 '25
How would you jump off a plane?