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Old 16th Jun 2009, 10:21
  #1674 (permalink)  
Dave Gittins
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Surrey, UK ;
Age: 71
Posts: 1,155
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The '10's cargo doors certainly didn't fail non catastrophically (leading to - I think - 2 hull losses (1 near Paris)) when they completely departed the aeroplane but the issue was due mainly to the failures of the over centre latching mechanism and no positive indication when the latches were secure / insecure not the power of the actuator. What they did reveal was some serious weakness in the cabin floor when, following an explosive decompression of the cargo hold, air couldn't vent fast enough from the passenger cabin and the cabin floor couldn't stand the pressure differential. The elevator and engine control runs in the floor were suddenly yanked which led to loss of control and severe unrecoverable pitch up (who says cables are better than wires ?).

Something of the swiss cheese effect that took a lot to sort out - accept that there was a problem - and subsequently fix. If such a compehensive fault is found with AF447, I hope the industry accepts what it is and resolves it quicker than 34 years ago.

Personally I doubt very much it will be the case and these swiss cheese holes will be far more obscure and harder to find.
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