Airbubba

Midflight mishap terrifies passengers

Plane's cabin door opens at 500 feet

By Julie D. Polovina, Globe Correspondent | August 26, 2004

A Cape Air flight from Boston to Nantucket was cruising at 500 feet earlier this month when a cabin door suddenly blew upen, sending wind rushing in and frightening passengers.

''All of a sudden the wind was whipping through the plane," said Calley Cutler of Salem, N.H., who was on the Aug. 11 flight in an eight-person Cessna 402 with her husband. ''I was never so scared in my entire life. I didn't know what was happening."

A spokeswoman for Cape Air said the incident wasn't considered an emergency and that passengers were never in danger because the cabin was not pressurized.

''It can be a bit disconcerting for passengers when they hear the noise coming from outside, but this was not an emergency by any stretch of the imagination," said Michelle Haynes, a spokeswoman for Cape Air.

The FAA, which met the plane on the ground when it safely returned to Logan International Aiport, determined that the door hadn't been locked properly, according to Arlene Salac, an FAA spokeswoman. ''It's standard procedure for a plane with a door ajar to return, open and re-close the door to see if it's working properly and then continue on with the flight," she said.

But, Cutler criticized Cape Air's handling of the accident, saying she and her husband were terrified throughout the 25-minute flight and disputed the airline's contention that the pilot assured the passengers that they weren't in any danger.

''We grabbed onto one another and were holding each other's hands," Cutler said. ''I was praying the whole time."

Cape Air's Haynes said the pilot has an excellent record and did nothing wrong.

But she said that if passengers were not informed in a clear manner that there was no danger, it would be a breach of the airline's customer service code.

''Even one bad incident of customer service is not acceptable to us," Haynes said. ''If the couple was given less than stellar customer service, then on behalf of the company I sincerely apologize to them."

The couple was shaken by the experience, Cutler said, enough to take a ferry back to the mainland.


http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...es_passengers/

birdbrain

They took the ferry back to the mainland ??

I was under the impression that Logan is part of the 'Mainland' and that Nantucket was the Island... !
Strange how ones perspective can be so wrong... !

.92

Yes... a lot of disgruntled pilots at Cape Air. Managements arrogance is legendary there. I wonder what would have happened if the door ripped off and took out a part of the elevator?