drunk Lankan player causes panic - trying to open door mid-air mistaking it to be toilet

Sengottai (English: Red Fort)  released in 1996  was one of the many action oriented ‘Nationalistic theme’ Tamil film featuring Arjun.  It paired Meena and Ramba with Arjun.  The  musical score was by Vidyasagar.  In the climax, Arjun would immobilize the villain on flight, then jump out of the moving plane through cargohold opening……… many have the habit of criticizing Tamil films for its fallacies ……………….in Die Hard 2, released in 1990 – hero Bruce Willis would do a lengthy fight running on the wings of a flight mid-air, nearer land would fall back with tyre tracks close to him.   The storyline was of a cop having to stop terrorists who take an airport hostage while his wife's plane circles overhead. He has 58 minutes to do so before the plane crashes.

In Windies, Indians were brought down to harsher reality – did it have something to do with Dhoni not playing and Kohli captaining ? "Can't seem to win a toss," Angelo Mathews said ~ but would not mind losing as Kohli won, put them in and saw the openers making a merry – the solitary wicket fell after an opening stand of 213.  Lanka made 348 for 1 (Tharanga 174*, Jayawardene 107, Mathews 44*) and  beat India  who could muster only 187 (Jadeja 49*, Herath 3-37) by 161 runs.  Not sure whether have had another  instance of an innings in a 50-over international ending with just one wicket down. Upul Tharanga and Mahela Jayawardene made a mockery of the teams' suspicion of the damp surface; Jayawardene's first ODI century in two years and 50 innings came too. 

Srilankans are flying high …….. and made news on mid-air too…… there is news of a lankan player – unnamed thus far – allegedly mistaking the cabin door for the toilet  and trying to open it midair. Reports state that the incident of a player fully drunk trying to open the cabin door at 35,000ft caused panic.  The incident alarmed eye-witnesses among the 229 passengers on board flight BA 2158 as the Sri Lankan cricket team flew back high over the Atlantic ocean from St Lucia to London Gatwick after playing against the West Indies in the Tri Nations Tour. The team had boarded in Grenada for the overnight flight which stopped over in St Lucia before landing at Gatwick just before 8am Monday.

Player, who ? – file picture no indication

Daily Mail quotes that Charlene Francis, 26, from Willesden in London was just feet away from the unfolding drama with her one year-old daughter ‘TJ’, her mother Linda and sleeping brother Kevin, when the incident happened in economy class about six hours into an eight hour flight from St Lucia to London’s Gatwick Airport. The recruitment consultant who is on maternity leave  is quoted as saying: ‘It was pretty frightening. I’m a nervous flyer anyway but things had been fine until then. I was awake. My daughter had been crying. So I saw everything.’ She said the man wrestling with the door was among a group of cricket players wearing the blue Sri Lankan polo-shirt team uniform with their country’s name in yellow lettering. ‘Suddenly he came over and tried to open the cabin door several times. It went on for a few minutes. He was pulling quite heavily.'  ‘The BA flight attendants came running down the aisle and tried to calm him down. He seemed quite disoriented. At one stage he was leaning against my daughters cot.’ She heard the man tell cabin crew that he had been looking for the toilet - an account confirmed by BA.

His team-mates were reportedly shouting and the event was linked to "an element of alcohol’. BA stressed that it is impossible to open the pressurised door in mid-flight and that at no point was the safety of passengers compromised. Officials confirmed witness accounts that the man at the centre of the drunken escapade was a Sri Lankan cricketer but declined to name him. Perhaps Srilankan board would hear the incident, conduct inquiry and take disciplinary action on the player.  

It is stated that due to differences in air pressure, it is usually not possible to open an airplane door during flight at normal cruising altitudes, despite what you may have seen in the movies. This goes for all doors of an aircraft, including emergency exit and main doors; Commercial aircraft have pressurized cabins to facilitate passenger comfort and so that the oxygen level in the cabin can be easily controlled. Without a pressurized cabin, passengers would need to wear oxygen masks, and they might get physically uncomfortable at high altitude. The difference in pressure between the inside of a plane and the outside essentially seals the doors of an aircraft even without latching, although most planes have pressurized seals as well, for safety. In emergency situations, pilots bring planes to lower altitudes and slowly depressurize the cabin so that the doors of the aircraft can be quickly opened.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

3^rd  July 2013.