Conquest Mishap

[Plow King]

I might have missed this, but can anyone shed some light on the Conquest enroute fm AD to MIA last week that apparently had the nose locker door open in flight, possibly with some resultant damage and the loss of a bag.

The King

[Chadzat]

I was out that way today and got asked to monitor 121.5 for an ELT signal. Maybe the bag had an ELT in it?!

[gaunty]

Expensive little mishap, I'd be amazed if it didnt hit the prop on the way.

Gearbox, diaphragm, bearings, engine inspection. :{

Work it out, say 20kg bag, prop 1900 RPM, eng 40,000 RPM, leveraging aint just a fancy financing trick. :sad:

Still the boys in Adelaide have been there before. :ok:

[Continental-520]

That would be a smidgen expensive, I should think.

Would you like a dented stabiliser with that?


520.

[gassed budgie]

No damage, other than the missing locker door.

[Capt Fathom]

Amazing all right...

From this: apparently had the nose locker door open in flight

To this: I'd be amazed if it didnt hit the prop on the way

And this: Gearbox, diaphragm, bearings, engine inspection

There's more: Would you like a dented stabiliser with that

Finally, back to reality: No damage, other than the missing locker door

And we complain about media beat-ups!

[Continental-520]

The imagination can run wild.

I'd be surprised if the media could come up with the suggestions you quoted though.

More like just detailing how everyone involved thought they were going to die.


520.

[gaunty]

Capt Fathom

No damage, other than the missing locker door. yeah right and I hope for their sake they are right.

I do not know what your experience with Conquest aircraft or any 400 series Cessna is but one of my crew had an "locked " nose baggage door come open in flight and it is all but impossible for a bag to get past the prop without touching it, that's all it has to do, and there is also very high probability it would have struck the horizontal stabiliser, which is the least of your worries as far as dollars iare concerned.

As far as the engine is concerned that 20kg bag weighed in at around something like 2 tonnes.

BTW when I put a little bloke in the nose locker and locked each door in turn it was not possible for him to "spring" the door.

As far as the prop and engine are concerned there is no way you can be certain that there has not been impact damage to the gearbox and engine without opening it up, checking the gearbox and going through the diaphragm, bearings and engine for inspection.

Unless the boys in Rossair at ADL or somebody equally competent and experienced with these engines has inspected the engine, I'll give you penny to a pound there will be a problem up the track.

From memory the bill for the inspection including airfares and accomodation was several hundred thousand and that included some new parts, including a quill shaft.

When they opened it up, the gearbox all but fell out in their hands and there were no other obvious symptoms prior. :rolleyes: and I had recovered the aircraft from 600nm away AFTER the airframe and engine specialist who had after a very thorough inspection and runs signed it off for ferry.:eek:

Fixed shaft turboprops are a wonderfully fuel efficient turbine engine, but it doesn't take much beyond getting the prop in a puddle even to cause merry hell.

Sackable offence is not correctly latching AND locking those doors.

[Continental-520]

No damage, other than the missing locker door.

So what happened to that?

Wouldn't the windshield be the first to cop that? I would've thought a locker door through the perspex at 180kts or whatever has more than enough punch to kill you.

520.

[Dagger Dirk]

AD to MIA

Where's MIA?

Is that Monkey Mia?

Don't mind me, just feeling dense.

[DeBurcs]

MIA = Missing in Action. He's talking about the nose locker door.the loss of a bagThat's no way to talk about the cabin crew.

Lucky this story wasn't about a 206 with a c**n pod....

[Alistair]

BTW when I put a little bloke in the nose locker and locked each door in turn it was not possible for him to "spring" the door

Gaunty, hope you let him out after he paid for the flight :ok: A well known safety feature of the 400 series cessna to prevent passenger egress prior to arrival at destination!

[olderbutyzer]

Whose Conquest was this?

[Chadzat]

YMIA is MILDURA.

[R4+Z]

Continental-520

Care to explain how the door went from zero relative velocity to being stationary relative to the plane in just a couple of feet?

[Continental-520]

It hits the windscreen. That'll return it to zero relative velocity rather quickly!

No, I hear what you're asking. I'm not sure what a C441 does in terms of IAS in whatever phase of flight this one was in when the door detached, hence the use of the word "whatever" after "180kts" in my previous post, but I still feel it would decelerate (and therefore accelerate towards the windscreen) in a flash, and still with enough punch to kill someone.

520

[magnum pi]

Locker door did come off & took out the leading edge between the fuse & eng .Engine did have to come out as there was white paint on prop(that wasnt there on t/o),and on a ground run the eng over temped. PI.

[gaunty]

Well there you go.

And those locker doors? After years of being forced shut against the too much baggage, the hinge castings eventually give up.

Just another thing to add to your preflights chaps. :)

Alistair They're great for body bags as well and after a flight at FL300 or so they keep for while too.:oh:

Good for cooling slabs as well.:ok:

[Centaurus]

I experienced similar incident many years ago with Conquest 1 belonging to the Myer family. Flew Sydney to Melbourne in perfect weather and around 1200 ft on final for 26 Essendon the front locker door flew open. Inside were bags, chocks and other loose articles. My first thought was if something went through the prop we were in trouble so I promptly feathered left prop and continued approach. Fortunately nothing fell out.

Found out later that Conquest locker doors were known to fly open with fuselage twisting and that it was best not to trust the over-centre locking devices but to back them up with a locker key. No one had mentioned this in my endorsement. I lost my job over that incident.

[R4+Z]

Continental-520

Will agree that whatever speed it hits is not good, just thought the stated speeds were a little journalistic. I agree that whatever the speed it would not be good. I didn't mean to detract from the point you were trying to make, but I just couldn't reconcile the figures.

[gaunty]

Centaurus

Mate it's a big door and long nose, SOP is to lock them, we had at some expense, the whole fleet keyed alike, apart from the relieving the crews of the necessity to carry a cuppla dozen keys it encouraged and was a requirement for them to lock em.

Only the other day when I moved house I found about a kg of blanks and a bunch of barrels we had kept for replacements.

In the days before all this security we locked aircraft doors and lockers only to keep the honest people out and to act as a back up should it not be locked.

[Continental-520]

It's cool, like I said, I have no idea what sort of speed it would be doing in any phase of flight really, so the figure stated could easily be a smidgen journalistic.

Centaurus,

That must've been one of the worst feelings to ever have in this game, I reckon. You know within yourself that you locked that door (if you did) and I can imagine it must have baffled you to the day you found out the perculiarity of the door why the hell it came open, and why not on takeoff/in turbulence/on descent instead of on final.

520.

[Lodown]

When will we ever learn that a tower at Proserpine and extending Class E to the ground could have provided ATC services that would have prevented this incident?

[OzExpat]

Yes indeed! Where's Dick when we need him to tell us how such an incident could have been avoided with HIS American ATC/airspace model? :yuk:

Over to you Dick! :ugh:

[Highbypasss]

...wouldn't happen in a Metro....:ok:

............................................................ .:cool: