BirdStrike opens Cargo Door!
 

Hi All...AFAIK this situation here depicted its pretty rare and in my humbleness i thought that it was almost impossible to happen...but in fact yesterday it happened:eek:

After a "strong" BS that affected both engines, an A320 Of SATA-Azores on the TO climb from Madeira to CPH, the front cargo hold door opened due to the mighty impact, with lots of blood around the handle-opening area...

The skillfully crew managed to land imediately the plane with both engines affected, and Cargo Door opened, after a very short flight of 2 minutes and 50 seconds...!

So my question, if anyone here could give a glimpse or tech explanation, how could a Cargo Hold door open in flight because of a BS?
Even the assimetric-engine trepidation could led to that specific situation, but in a modern Airbus, i think its more than unusual...any similar incidents in the past?

Cheers and Tanx...:cool:

any factual data for us to consider? or just an extremely unlikely possibility?

Did the pilot file a report confirming the facts and were these facts yet confirmed by maintenance?

i have no idear how a bird strike could open the front cargo door on a A320 as there is a flap you have to push in to get hold of the handle. to open the door you first have to pull the handle then twist or on newer A320 pull the handle towards you which opens the door a few inches. there is a switch under the belly behind a door that you then have to press to open the door fully.

not sure how the bird could hit the cargo door at such a speed or at all as to damage it enought to make the door open from the impact would have thought air flow round the front of the aircraft would deflect the bird

Quite obviously, the aircraft would still need to be on the ground for the bird to accomplish all of that.

http://planesandstuff.b logspot.com/2011/06/satas-birdstrike.html

But not much help. (take out the space in b logspot)

Think we should be swapping one type of BS for another :ok:

Hi,
I'm still not aware of any pic of the landing but several people from several airport operations areas confirmed the situation of the open door.
It wasn't wide-open but it was open...

No one from the local regular spotters were around (at least with a camera) but beeing one of the busiest days at LPMA, probably some pics have been taken. Let's hope they became public, soon...

The incident first report of the event made by Portuguese Investigation Authorities (GPIAA) was released.
It's in Portuguese and it's just a small description of the events:

http://www.gpiaa.gov.pt/tempfiles/20...42318moptc.pdf

but confirms to whoever had any doubts on the cargo open door.

GPIAA (Portugese Accident Investigation Board) Press Release
 

http://www.gpiaa.gov.pt/tempfiles/20...42318moptc.pdf

The relevant sentence, courtesy of Google Translate, reads...

the control tower informed the crew that the door of the front cargo hold is found open, which was confirmed by the indications in the cockpit (MACE).

Not surprisingly the last sentence reads...

the event was classified as a serious incident and the Director of GPIAA determined the opening of an investigation of an incident.

That must have been one clever bird, it must have pushed the flap in and lifted the handle to disengage the hook locks ......

Hmmm! A flock of seagulls apparently. Must've been a rather large flock. I suppose if you batter a plane with enough seagulls at sufficient speed then you'll do a lot of damage. :oh:

Also, another sentence states the fact that the landing was made with a weight exceeding the maximum weight for landings

(ALM of 68.100kgs for 64.500kgs of MLM)

well it was either that of the serious possibility of a "bath" in the ocean...

Just to had that the Capt. is a local one and probably one of the Captains with more landings at Madeira...

Hmmm, a take-off alternate is required for all FNC departures. Not sure I'd want to return to FNC over MLW, but with PXO currently at reduced LDA it was perhaps the best option (TFN being 314 nm away).

I am not familiar with the A320 cargo door operating system but most large aircraft have no power to the system in flight making it almost impossible for the door to open in flight if locked before departure.

Shall we discount the bird factor as secondary event (hardly an area of the fuselage that bird strikes are likely) and look at how the aircraft was dispatched with a cargo door in an unsafe position!

Posted on avherald.com
 

I'm not sure if Simon Hradecky is joking, but he reports:

Incident: SATA A320 at Funchal on Jun 20th 2011, flock of birds ingested by both engines, bird strike opens forward cargo door

BS
 

Aeromech3,
are you implying that the birdstrike activated the open cargo door warning which was obviously faulty or that the crew ignored this and took off regardless and were fortunate that the bird strikes necessitated an immediate RTB?

Methinks Occam's razor applies unless proven otherwise.

The cargo door handle was with blood and remains of a bird...
Pretty curious that in all flights that was the one that the ground personel left the door handle in the wrong position....

An English version of the quick report of GPIAA is now available:

http://www.gpiaa.gov.pt/tempfiles/20...73919moptc.pdf

I remember years ago, when the company fleet were 737-200's one had a birdstrike on take-off, the resulting surge managed to somehow thump the fwd cargo door enough to give a door warning, but it didn't open fully. The surge was also enough to break 3 of the 4 bolts holding the JT8 nose cone on.....

Even more interesting Momoe from the English translation. The aircraft had just rotated and so its forward surfaces and engines would feel the impact of the birds at about V2 velocity. The engines suffered typical bird ingestion damage and if the aircraft had been a prop jet, then some bird parts might have been centrifuged towards the side of the fuselage and these then might have had enough energy to cause deformation in a cargo door area; birds ricocheting off the nose landing gear might have hit the lower fuselage but IMHO I don't see birds having enough tangential speed of there own to cause the cargo door handle to misplace.
The replies from those BM's, whom I take it as having operated A320 cargo doors, seem to point to the bird impact being secondary to the door lever being in the wrong positioned.
Perhaps a BM could advise how obvious the ECAM message alerts the crew, when it was obviously open to the Tower?