A female passenger on a Boston-bound jet is ?accused of trying to open an exit door midflight while drunk in a unnerving episode one aeronautics expert said is impossible to pull off.

“When an airplane is fully pressurized, you can’t open that door up,” said John Hansman, a professor of aeronautics and ?astronautics at MIT. “There’s thousands of pounds of pressure pushing the door out. There’s no way you can open the door in flight.”

Kamila Dolniak, 32, of ?Poland, is being charged with interfering with a flight crew in the London-to-Boston trip, according to state police. She was processed by Customs and Border Protection yesterday and is set to be arraigned today in East Boston District Court.

Passengers on the British Airways jet told the Herald Dolniak’s arrest took place a couple of hours into the trans-Atlantic flight and appeared to start when she tried to smoke an e-cigarette.

“She had a vapor cigarette and she was going into the bathroom to try to smoke it when they told her she couldn’t do that,” said Debby O’Leary of Boston, who said she was seated next to the suspect.

Witnesses said as many as a half-dozen flight attendants restrained Dolniak, who was unruly and moving about the plane and ?allegedly attempted to open one of the exit doors.

“They had to put handcuffs on her and strap her in,” O’Leary said. “She was really fighting them. Most of the trip she was fighting them.”

The Boston woman said Dolniak had her hands cuffed, her legs shackled and was strapped to the seats.

State police said Dolniak was intoxicated and federal authorities were alerted, but there was no report of any link to terrorism.

On board the flight, which landed safely at ?Logan International Airport, many passengers didn’t know the specifics of what had happened during the trip.

“I didn’t know what happened on the plane. Six or seven U.S. police officers boarded the plane while we were seated, they handcuffed the lady and escorted her off the plane,” said David Hallet of London.

“It was totally controlled,” said Jacqui Lewis, who added that the flight was normal for the final few hours after the woman was subdued. “The flight crew was great and everything seemed to happen without most people noticing what was going on.”