Emergency Exits Shouldn't Be This Easy to Open

Emergency exits are a critical part of the pre-flight torture preparation for airline passengers. After all, in the event of an emergency, everyone should know that how to get off an airplane.

But at the same time, I'm not so sure I like the idea that anyone can just sprint to the airplane and pop one open. Lest you think they can't, listen to what happened on a Dallas-Fort Worth runway yesterday:

A 26-year-old passenger on board an American Airlines jet from Charlotte to Dallas opened a door and slid down an inflatable emergency chute Tuesday as the aircraft waited to taxi to its gate at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

The man, who had not been identified Tuesday night, reportedly ran into the first class section of American Airlines Flight 1343 and opened the exit door, according to an airport advisory. The plane, an MD-80, had just arrived from Charlotte/Douglas International Airport about 1 p.m. and was parked on a ramp when the incident happened.

Now, maybe he was trying to avoid unnecessary flight expenditures. Or perhaps he really had to go to the bathroom and just happens to be claustrophobic. 

But here's a different issue: how the mess is it possible to open an emergency exit that quickly? I mean, I totally understand why you want to be able to pop those suckers open (it is, after all, hopefully an emergency when they're being used) but I can't even get my car door open that quickly. That's mainly because it locks automatically when the car is moving at more than zero miles per hour. Which is something I might suggest for airlines to consider.