757 Evac Door Chutes

[HZ123]

I have always been told / and instructed others that the 757 door when opened from the outside must have the girt bar checked before opening the door fully. Just back from US and handling company staff were under the impression that the chute automatically disarms when door is opened from outside. I said it was news to me, can someone confirm? Thanks

[dwshimoda]

All the doors will automatically disarm if opened from the outside.

The exception to this is if the aircraft has over wing exits - these are never disarmed. (unless done by Engineering for maintenance, etc.)

Hope that helps.

DW.

[spannersatcx]

replace will with should, that's why you always visually check when opening a door, or one day you may get a face full of a slide raft.

[mono]

Yup, The action of pulling the butterfly handles (on the 75) is what disarms the slide. However I agree with spanners that a check that the girt bar has actually detached is adviseable. They are known to stick usually due to ice formation and so could still cause the slide to deploy.

Cheers.

[Ground Bound]

I used to open 747 doors from the outside. Althought in theory the butterfly handle should disarm the chutes, the procedure was that the cabin crew gave the 'thumbs up' to confirm they were disarmed, then we would 'crack' the door and not only check that the girt bar was stowed, but also that the gas bottle was disarmed. If that thing had gone inside a jetty it would have been curtains!

[tristar 500]

On B747, 757 & 767 A/C opening the door from the outside should disengage the girt bar. However if it does not all that will happen is the chute will fall on to the steps.

It requires the pack to fall a couple of feet (from memory) to withdraw the parachute pins from the attatchment before the inflation bottle is energised.

The worst that can happen is having to change the chute, if you do not have one there is a restriction to the passenger load back to base, you cannot operate from your main base with a chute inoperative.

tristar 500

[spannersatcx]

A certain airline we sold some 'classics' to set off a slide in an airbridge, then complained when it was returned with a few holes in it (leatherman size!) The fact that it nealy killed a few people and completely blocked the airbridge didn't matter.

[HZ123]

Thanks for the infomation and extras. This now leads me to identify that the same 'failsafe' operates on all Boeing pax aicraft perhaps with the exception of the 737?

Regarding the 747 doors the cartridge is still utilised to force the door open, is that compressed air or explosive contents?

Once again thanks to all.

[spannersatcx]

nitrogen is used.

[HZ123]

Thanks one and all, very informative.