One time on a 727, we landed at a small airport to pick up some cargo. The engineer opened the cargo door(only to the partially open canopy position-according to him). The wind was less than the maximum but blowing toward the left fuselage side. A gust put enough force on the door to literally snap the two main rods from each actuator(four in total) leaving the door opened more than the fully open position(pretty much vertical or beyond) and still moving with the wind gusts. One has to wonder what can happen with the door open in flight. Obviously the wind would be from a different angle and less overall force but still scary.
As for our our aircraft, a cherry picker was brought in allowing the engineer to hook up straps to the door which was then lowered down and to my amazement, we got a ferry permit back to base......unpressurized of course.
Not a Boeing cargo door design by the way...aftermarket.
Lesson learned? Even if the wind is less than the max for door opening, you may want to consider parking in a different position that normal on a windy day.
Last edited by tcasblue; 6th Oct 2021 at 13:28.