Top 5 Reasons for Opening the Emergency Exit Door
3. To get that crying kid off the plane.
In February 2012 a passenger on Vietnam Airlines was fined 15 million Vietnamese Dong (US $726) for his misguided attempt to be a Good Samaritan by assisting a mother with a screaming baby. After landing at Ho Chi Minh City airport the mother was hoping to exit the plane as fast as possible and asked the man seated next to her to open the emergency exit. He accommodated her request thereby deploying the emergency exit slide. As it turns out, the mother and child never utilized the slide, though it was not clear whether the mother changed her mind about departing by slide or if flight attendants intervened.
Perhaps what is most shocking is that this was the third incident in six months that a passenger opened the emergency exit on a Vietnam Airlines Flight. The student who mistook the emergency exit for a button to open the window ranks #5 on our countdown. And the previous year yet another young student, 22 years old on his first flight, accidentally opened the emergency exit door because he thought it would release the window shade. Seriously, the window shade…we can’t even make this stuff up.
Next >> The Top 5 countdown continues with Reason #2. Sick and tired of the airline delays?
