[HN Gopher] Boeing 757 cargo door opens after takeoff
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       Boeing 757 cargo door opens after takeoff
        
       Author : EwanToo
       Score  : 68 points
       Date   : 2021-02-13 17:10 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | dralley wrote:
       | The loadmaster is probably sweating bullets right now, as well
       | they should...
        
         | AceyMan wrote:
         | Modern planes have comprehensive sensor systems for all door
         | operations. If a door is not fully closed it's presented very
         | obnoxiously on the flight deck, so I'd bet something either
         | broke in flight or a sensor system was very out-of-tolerance.
        
           | oasisbob wrote:
           | Going beyond that, I thought modern planes were designed with
           | plug doors and latches that physically can't get partially
           | engaged.
           | 
           | If you're depending on a sensor alarming on the flight deck,
           | you're already several failures in I would think.
        
             | NikolaeVarius wrote:
             | Thats for passenger planes. Cargo aircraft don't want to
             | sacrifice the swing in area.
        
       | adamjb wrote:
       | Link to the screenshotted article
       | 
       | http://avherald.com/h?article=4e2fd449
        
         | EwanToo wrote:
         | Thanks, I tried to find it but couldn't
        
       | lrem wrote:
       | How rare is this kind of an accident?
        
         | GlenTheMachine wrote:
         | Caused the near loss of one DC-10 and the total loss of another
         | one, a few decades back.
        
           | ineedasername wrote:
           | That was pretty specific to the DC-10: A money-driven design
           | decision had the cargo door open outwards to allow more cargo
           | to fit inside. A design _flaw_ meant that it was possible to
           | close the door without fully locking it.
        
             | matt-attack wrote:
             | Do most airplane doors have a mechanism where "closing" is
             | the same act as "locking"? That is, it's impossible for the
             | door to be closed but not locked?
        
               | ooboe wrote:
               | Most commercial airplane doors cannot open directly
               | outward. They unseal inward and then twist to clear
               | outward. At altitude the internal pressure will push them
               | directly outward and render them unable to open, even if
               | the locks fail. In this regard they are fail-safe.
               | 
               | The DC-10 eschewed this standard in favour of doors that
               | opened directly outward with catastrophic results if the
               | locks failed.
        
               | nopzor wrote:
               | modern aircraft doors open inwards first, this is a
               | really important design feature.
               | 
               | so therefore locking becomes irrelevant. even if some
               | crazy person goes up to the doors mid flight and tries to
               | disarm, unlock, and open them, they simply won't open
               | when you're at altitude, even though the aircraft is
               | pressurized.
               | 
               | long story short the difference between closed and
               | "locked" is actually almost irrelevant in modern
               | airliners when the aircraft is at altitude.
        
         | sashk wrote:
         | Not frequent, but happened in the past. Example United 811 --
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_811
        
           | missedthecue wrote:
           | This is what my mind immediately went to. Can't believe that
           | plane flew for another decade and a half.
        
       | ineedasername wrote:
       | _" several parts separated & were distributed over the ground"_
       | 
       | That seems like a comically understated way to say that pieces of
       | a plane broke off while traveling a few hundred miles an hours &
       | fell 5,000 feet to the ground below.
        
         | danaliv wrote:
         | This industry is chock full of dryly technical jargon for
         | describing absolute horrors. My go-to is CFIT, or "controlled
         | flight into terrain." Yikes.
        
           | sokoloff wrote:
           | RUD-Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly - "It blew up" (more
           | aerospace than straight aviation)
        
             | hinkley wrote:
             | Controlled Flight Into Terrain: pilot thought he knew how
             | to miss the ground. Pilot was wrong.
             | 
             | Engine-rich exhaust: shit's on fire, yo.
        
       | sllabres wrote:
       | https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-dhkz#26d05e8c
        
       | justnotworthit wrote:
       | ...and I had just built up the courage to take my dogs on a plane
       | trip.
        
       | londons_explore wrote:
       | The report saying pieces fell on a coal plant, but also saying no
       | cargo was dropped suggests pieces of the aircraft fell...
       | Suggesting perhaps some panels were ripped off by the airflow.
        
         | mdoms wrote:
         | The very sentence that mentions the coal plant also states that
         | it was parts of the air frame???
        
       | andor wrote:
       | Original article in the screenshot:
       | http://avherald.com/h?article=4e2fd449&opt=0
        
       | surfer7837 wrote:
       | I thought all modern aircraft had plug doors [1] that means it
       | cannot be opened in flight? Unless the pressure difference was so
       | low it didn't matter in this case?
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_door
        
         | nopzor wrote:
         | indeed they do, i don't have a lot of details in this case, but
         | it seems like it happened at very low altitude. the plug door
         | design works when there's an actual pressure differential (ie.
         | at higher altitude)
        
         | ygra wrote:
         | From that very article: "However, since plug doors must open
         | inward, the design is disadvantageous for cargo doors. Due to
         | its large area, the cargo door on an airliner cannot be swung
         | inside the fuselage without taking up a considerable amount of
         | valuable cargo space. For this reason, these doors often open
         | outward and use a locking mechanism with multiple pins or hatch
         | dogs to prevent opening while in flight."
        
         | danaliv wrote:
         | That's true of most airplanes' doors for humans, but the cargo
         | door on a 75 opens outward. It's too big to be a plug.
         | 
         | https://kawakaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Kawak-A...
        
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       (page generated 2021-02-13 23:01 UTC)