Another door opening in flight attempt: this time, on Air Asia

[anat0l]

Looks like the intelligence of people who attempt to open up aircraft doors in the air matches that of robbers who don't take note of the "No cash stored overnight" signs.

What is it with these incidents lately... I mean, at least it isn't ATC failures or planes crashing out of the sky...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Looks like the intelligence of people who attempt to open up aircraft doors in the air matches that of robbers who don't take note of the "No cash stored overnight" signs.

What is it with these incidents lately... I mean, at least it isn't ATC failures or planes crashing out of the sky...

According to flightaware there are roughly 7000-10000 commercial passenger flights in the air at the same time on an average day.

A couple of instances of a passenger attempting to open a door is pretty low. Maybe it’s possible to argue some cases go unreported… which probably indicates it’s not really ‘news’?

Media like to latch on to the ‘issue of the day’. And try and make out it’s somehow systemic. I’m not sure it’s the case.

 

[anat0l]

According to flightaware there are roughly 7000-10000 commercial passenger flights in the air at the same time on an average day.

A couple of instances of a passenger attempting to open a door is pretty low. Maybe it’s possible to argue some cases go unreported… which probably indicates it’s not really ‘news’?

Media like to latch on to the ‘issue of the day’. And try and make out it’s somehow systemic. I’m not sure it’s the case.

You're fundamentally right, it is "insignificant" (well, statistically anyway).

I think the news (and the reason to read the hyperbolic media) is not so much the incident itself (particularly something like this where no actual damage was directly incurred and could not have happened), but rather the aftermath and consequences, particularly if there are no consequences. For example, the lady on Jetstar the other day who was detained in Bali after similarly attempting to open a door (and also being at least vocally belligerent) was reported to have been flown back to Australia. People aren't likely to react to the fact she couldn't open the door and more than she isn't rightfully sitting in a prison in Bali having the sense beaten into her (and the airline which said she was not allowed to fly them for the foreseeable future was compelled to carry her back to Australia, essentially giving her the return flight scot free).

The news of the two crashes in the USA were not too much about the crash itself (apart from blessings and thoughts for the dead) but rather who was to blame and what was being done (and maybe what Mr Orange with the toupee said). Luckily, two crashes in the space of merely a week isn't enough to make everyone think that flying (in the USA) is now unsafe (or even flying around the Washington DC area is inherently unsafe), because most realise, like you, that the incidences are very rare. (That said, it doesn't mean we should simply ignore such incidents)

Media also like to latch on the airlines with any incident in order to provide attack vectors for the public. Notice how comments left on articles about airlines often contain a lot of content which has no relevance to the article incident itself but rather any grievances and horror stories about said airline. It's all traffic for the media company anyway. I remember when Qantas was in the news whenever a go around happened, aka "we thought we all were going to die"...