Don't people check those things

[wes616]

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...News&storyID=13132137&src=rss/oddlyEnoughNews

Seriously, How does a door just "fall off" during flight?

Wes C.
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Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

 

[rb1957]

jeez, what a DF ... note the inclusion ...

they don't "just" fall off ... i suspect that the door in question has stops intended to react outward pressure only (as ou'd expect from cabin pressure). then there'd be a fitting so that the door doesn't fall off under its own weight. if this isn't maintained properly the door could come loose.

but there'll be a whole safety board analysis of what happened and why.

 

[wes616]

rb1957, you had me going for a minute there!

Wes C.
------------------------------
Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

 

[prost]

Sometimes the latching mechanism stinks. Three (?) DC-10s went down in the 70s because a door didn't latch properly and came off in flight. These passenger and crew were very lucky it came open so early in the flight, before a much larger pressure difference would have been present (say at cruising altitude). I would suspect the door wasn't latched properly, the crew started pressurizing the cabin, pushed the door out.

 

[kontiki99]

Used to be plug doors were the norm, at least on larger aircraft. The doors were bigger than the hole, the closing mechanisim folded portions of the door so it could swing inside and fit into the hole like a tapered plug.

Not so with modern designs and smaller airplanes.

 

[prost]

Even with a plug door, can't you just turn it sideways, pull the top down to belt level, and slide it through the hole?

 

[rb1957]

there are, of course, many ways to skin a cat (or to design a door) ... plug doors are inherently safer but more complex (expensive) designs ... non-plug doors are quite easily designed to be certifiable (otherwise they wouldn't be in planes in the first place) so it comes down to the same old question "how much more do you want to pay for extra safety ?" ... the key words being "more" and "extra"

 

[SeaKing1998]

are there any airccraft structuiral repair courses available on line