Originally Posted by
Dan Winterland
Nutloose - Reef the VC10. I've used this to exit and enter the aircraft in the absence of steps on more than one occasion. Also, it was possible to get into the rear cargo hold through a door between the rear toilets into the 'boiler room' on the ones that weren't converted to tankers. In the film 'Catch me if you Can', Frank Abignale was seen to escape from a B707 through a toilet at JFK. This would have been impossible. In the book, he mentions it was actually a VC10 where it would have been quite possible, although quite a long drop from the rear cargo hatch.
I can also confirm the Airbus A300, A310, A330, A340 and the B747 have doors from the radio electrics bay into the forward baggage hold.
Yes, used the floor hatch myself when doing runs. I never knew you could get in the rear freight hold from the tail, was this on the C1? as I cannot remember ever seeing access, the door into the tail was by lifting up the no smoking sign and opening up the hidden door. There was also a periscope that could be put through the floor to see into the rear freight bay.
Jhieminga
The RAF acess door was only in the centre bog IIRC.
We did have a centre toilet door that used to pop open on its own and there was also concerns about the panting on the lower aft fuselage due to the amount of circuit and bumps with fuel in the fin, someone put a redline entry in the logbook saying the rear 5 rows of seats to be only occupied by blind people... and that they must hook their feet under the seat in front for take off and landings, or something along those lines. it did several flights before a crew actually read them... says it all really.