Nearly sucked out of the Window, Soutwest Air Flight...

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

"Confirm and Cross Check" is what I hear on United before they open doors after landing.

And then the other way....

https://aviation-safety.net/database...?id=19990407-2

That made big news when it happened, but it was hard to find in The Google search.

ETA: Here is a better one.
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/time...pressure-test/

[Det-Sog]

Mythbusters video. https://youtu.be/4yG2h1aDB6k

You can see why the person sitting at the window probably did not survive this incident. Now add, did the pieces from the engine that went through the window, hit the passenger also. There are lots of possible contributing factors. If they replicated this with a smaller, lighter test dummy, the upper torso could have made it out the window... I darn sure would not have wanted to be sitting there...

[Rayrevolver]

"Confirm and Cross Check" is what I hear on United before they open doors after landing.

And then the other way....

https://aviation-safety.net/database...?id=19990407-2

That made big news when it happened, but it was hard to find in The Google search.

ETA: Here is a better one.
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/time...pressure-test/

The slides are manually attached from the bottom of the door to notches on the aircraft side. The flight attendant needs to attach before you go and remove after you land, or else you pop the slide (not sure how Airbus rolls). The slides on a 737 are fun to go down and you make some heat on your butt. I would be scared trying out the slides on the upper deck of a 747. You need to step off and kinda drop. The people who take a big leap land down the slide and bounce. These are the people who break legs and get hurt.

The delta P must have been massive in OKC. If you do a high blow (a touch less than 9 psi) on deck you are supposed to take cover as a loose rivet could turn into a deadly projectile.

Myth busters failed to duplicate as they just duplicated static pressure.

Add the Venturi effect of 300 mph relative air velocity going across the newly created Venturi and you have much higher suction.

And smaller holes (windows) create more than bigger holes (doors or larger).

Probably most have not seen one, but the cheap vacuum pump tool in the past attached to your air compressor line and used a Venturi to pull a vacuum. Airplanes with pressure hull breaches are just a bigger version of that.

In my earlier career I kept subscription to Aviation week, which summarized aviation accidents each month. I was amazed at how many engine explosions and tire blow ups there were, and how they created deaths due to cabin depressurization.

Tire explosions far outnumbered catastrophic engine explosions like we just saw, typically with third world carriers.

I don't want to argue (too much) but...

In general, consider 8 psi differential as close to max of a 737 at 41,000 ft. So if Myth Busters pumped up that 727 to 14.7psi + 8 psi (so 22.7 psi), that would be reasonable. Where the 600mph comes into play is if you are outside the boundary layer so probably 1' away from the fuselage, you will feel the wrath of total pressure.

With respect to the holes, don't confuse steady state with the initial condition of a pressurized tube. Shake up a beer and put a small pin hole in it. Should be a small stream and a little flow. Now shake it up and pop the tab, should be a blast with lots more volume coming out. That is what happened when a window blows out and you have the entire volume of a 737 making its way out.

CFM56s are great and very reliable. But things happen, people make mistakes, and sometimes you get unlucky. Here is another story of an uncontained failure with a CFM56:
http://aerossurance.com/safety-manag...-failure-b737/