I recently took my first trip on Southwest Airlines, with my first layover in Chicago Midway. It’s a fairly mundane airport, really, though anyone who’s seen the show Airline will recognize the scenery.
While strolling down the concourse, however, these doors caught my attention:
For Emergency Only
Beside the completely open passageway spanning the entire width of the concourse are two tiny doors to be used “For Emergency Only.” Please, in a calm and orderly manner, move over to the right, open the door, and step through.
(Full disclosure: a gap in the ceiling suggests a gate can be lowered across the concourse to seal it off, but this does not make a freestanding “emergency only” door any less hilarious.)
I suppose if you stood idly in front of those doors some security guy would tell you to move so as not to block the exit.
The doors do seem pointless, even with the barrier that lowers from the ceiling. From movies I’ve learned that the good guy (aka “me”) can slip under the slowly descending gate at the last possible second. Normally, I don’t even like to wave my hand at closing elevator doors to trip them back open. But IN AN EMERGENCY I would run and slide under that airport barrier because — like I said — movies have taught me I cannot fail.