Originally Posted by
JamaicaJoe
A couple comments:
1) Can we all agree that the missing part of the plane is a "door" that replaces an emergency exit "door, That it is NOT a "plug"?, it is not designed as a "plug", does not function as a "plug" under pressurization of the hull. In fact, it performs exactly the opposite. The outward forces work to stress the door against its retainers not the frame in any intrinsic or hermetic manner..
2) The missing door is fitted with a larger window than the emergency door it replaces. It seems from photos that there is less cross bracing in that design. However I am not jumping to conclusions that the door failed. It is more likely that the low altitude and missing bolts conspired to eject this door (not a plug).
No, a door is a door. It can be opened and closed at will.
A door on an aircraft can be a plug type door where cabin pressure forces the door to the closed position.
The item that detached from this aircraft was not a door, it was a panel designed to fill an unused opening in the fuselage.
When owners of older 707/727/737 aircraft choose to no longer use the eyebrow windows in the cockpit, they don't replace them with doors, they replace them with plugs.
Same when passenger aircraft are converted for cargo use, the cabin windows are replaced with plugs. Not doors.
Photos have been posted in this thread showing the inside of both the doors and the plugs that can fill this opening in the fuselage. They are not the same.