3 minutes of terror.
Four passengers on an Asiana Airlines
flight in South Korea today.
Investigators.
They're now
honestly trying to figure out
how it happened,
how a man
seemingly was able
to open the aircraft door
of this plane mid-flight.
This was as the plane
also was about to land.
Watch
You can hear the wind
just whipping through,
ripping through the cabin.
You can see the passengers there
gripping their seats.
Also, which is oddly silent
but understandably silent
because of how terrifying
you can imagine.
This is an official
for the airline said that
a man in the exit row appeared
to try
appeared to open the door
while the plane was 700 feet in the air.
One passenger also said
that she believed
the man was trying to get
off the aircraft
and fellow passengers helped the crew
pull him back from the opening.
Let me bring in
CNN aviation
analyst Miles O'Brien for more on this.
Right,
Miles, on on several levels,
this should not have happened
and should not have been able to happen.
What do you see here?
Well, Kate, the
key thing
to know is
these doors are like stoppers
in a bathtub there.
They're plugged doors, they're called.
And when the plane is pressurized
at altitude, it is humanly impossible.
To pull them in and push them out.
They are sealed tight
like that stopper in the bathtub.
But when you get lower
and the pressure is equalized,
which it would be at 700 feet.
That possibility, it becomes
it becomes a possibility
for somebody to do this.
So it happened.
Fortunately, nobody got hurt And it's
really part of a string of cases
of passengers
that have been trying to monkey
around with these doors.
That's a good point.
I mean, and to your point,
they said that there are 200 people
on board.
12 people.
They suffered
how it's described as minor injuries
like hyperventilation.
Are you surprised?
Is it surprising that this wasn't worse,
considering the details
that you're learning
now about where they were when this was?
I you know, I think
the pilots
had certainly
a distraction on short
final as they are about to land.
All kinds of warning
signs would have been indicated
on that flight. Deck.
So the fact that they landed it out
eventually had tip to the crew
and frankly,
a hat
tip to the passengers on board
who saw a problem
and neutralized it, tackled them.
It's good to see that, actually.
So to put a fine point
on what you're talking about,
this was about two to 3 minutes
from landing there,
about 700 feet above the ground
when the door was opened.
If they were at higher altitude,
this would not have been possible.
This wasn't a mechanical error.
You don't think in your mind
this was just
this was just sheer physics,
that this was possible to happen,
whether that
person knew
that and waited to be that low?
I cannot say of course.
But sheer physics.
Well,
I don't want this to be the takeaway
for everybody else. They're flying.
This can't happen
once the aircraft is pressurized
because as it is pressurized,
at altitude,
it pushes those doors in like a plug
and you can't pull them open
no matter how hard you try.
So that's the good news there.
This incident happened
when the pressure was equalized
so you could open the door.
So I guess, you know, that
that boils down
to passengers
being very attentive
of their fellow passengers.
Which it looks like is
what happened here.
Absolutely
comforting hearing you're saying.
And also terrifying.
Still seeing this video
of what
these passengers were experiencing
in the last 3 minutes of their flight.
For sure.
It's great to see you.
Miles, thank you very much for coming in.
CNN's Tom Foreman joins me now.
So, Tom, one,
I didn't know this was possible.
Experts say it shouldn't
have been possible saying all that.
How did this happen?
It's not supposed to be possible.
The simple truth is
when a plane is flying
the pressure inside the plane
and the fact the doors are locked
are supposed to make it impossible
for you to open that door.
The door would be so heavy,
it would be like trying to lift a car
to open it in full flight.
But you mentioned a key thing.
There were.
This plane was only about 700 feet
above the ground,
according to authorities.
When this happened.
It was only two or 3 minutes away
from actually touching down.
So arguably
at that altitude,
the pressure, well,
not arguably factually at that pressure.
At that altitude, the pressure is much,
much, much,
much lower, really
about the same pressure you'd have
at the top of a 60 story building.
So no real pressure at all.
Still real questions about how we got it
open here
especially considering
that there also a landing speed issue.
You'd be going about 100
and 772 miles an hour
when you're landing at this
that also could have posed a problem
nonetheless.
Passengers say this guy jumped up
started yanking at the door
trying to get it open in some fashion.
Flight attendant
sort of yelling help, help
And about ten people rushed forward
and they pulled him back down.
And then they had a very breezy landing
from that point on.
I mean, so many questions.
Tom, what do we know about the passengers
who were aboard this flight?
What were the extent
of injuries, if at all?
Nobody seems to have
been seriously injured.
There were like a dozen people
who suffered sort of hyperventilation.
Some people may hyperventilate
just hearing about this story.
And this has been tried before.
This is not the first incident
where people have tried
to open a airplane door in flight,
but guaranteed in this case,
there will be a lot of
looks at the construction of this plane
and why even at a low altitude,
he was able to get the door open.
It's supposed to be impossible
like the Celtics
winning the NBA championship.
So we'll have to see what happens.
It's supposed to be Tom Foreman
Thank you, my friend.