Originally Posted by
Big Pistons Forever
I challenge anybody to find a report where a light aircraft cabin door came off in flight and hurt the airplane. Like every other emergency you fly the airplane first. If the door opens early in the takeoff run you stop and get off the runway and fix the door, if it happens later in the takeoff roll without enough runway to come to a comfortable stop; you ....takeoff.
I was heavily involved in flight testing and certification in the UK of the Raj Hamsa X'Air. We had a couple of incidents in testing of doors coming open in flight - it was top-hinged on a high wing aeroplane, and would fly sort of in formation with the wing, creating a rather problematic asymmetry, that could create significant control problems. If you were flying solo in the left seat and the right door came open, you'd really struggle to resolve that.
By the time it was approved in the UK, we'd made several design modifications that cured that (a secondary door catch basically). The unmodified aircraft was still approved in France and I think India, so I'd be amazed if the problem never happened in normal use there.
G