A couple of years ago!
The door 3 was locked out after Boeing and the FAA/CAA said that evacuation tests proved satisfactory. KLM (I believe) was another operator that went down the same route. One of the other reasons was the poor performance of the slide arrangement. The classic had a two piece slide, a door operated ramp and an off wing slide, the off wing slide being stored under a wing/body fairing and therefore subject to wide temp. differences, it was deployed using small cable operated thrusters (pyrotechnic cartridges).
The -400 series has all 10 doors on the main deck fully operational and has a much better (simpler!) one piece slide arrangement, stored on the door.
Last edited by gas path; 4th August 2003 at 06:35.