Be careful with doors that open in flight!

[paco]

An interesting report worth sharing:

Transport Safety Board of Canada (http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/aviation/2006/a06c0154/a06c0154.asp)

Phil

[SASless]

When a bubble door pops open next to you it will make you sit upright!

With a bit of pedal you can get the door into a position to latch it properly....without much difficulty. Reducing airspeed and yawing the aircraft is enough to work the problem out.

I had a door do that three times in one short flight....it was warped all out of shape as was the helicopter from way too many thousand hours of Logging.

This should not have been a fatal accident.

[lelebebbel]

very interesting report.
The pilot indicated that he could not land because he was holding the door with his hand. This implied that the pilot was holding the door with his left hand and therefore could not operate the helicopter's collective control to adjust the rotor blade angle. To slow the helicopter to the point where he would be able to close the door, he would have had to ease back on the cyclic control with his right hand to raise the nose of the helicopter and bleed off airspeed. Without adjusting collective, the helicopter would climb in a nose-high attitude as observed.

The climb got progressively steeper before the nose suddenly dropped. The dropping of the nose is consistent with the pilot pushing forward on the cyclic control in an attempt to recover from the nose-high attitude. The pilot should have been aware of the dangers of mast bumping through the pilot's initial helicopter licensing training and subsequent experience with helicopter operations. It is likely that, in the pilot's preoccupation with the open door, he did not apply the corrective actions required to recover from a nose-high attitude. This allowed the helicopter to enter a low-g condition, which in turn led to mast bumping and the in-flight breakup of the helicopter.

[WhirlwindIII]

Had this happen in BH222A and S76A - had to slow to @60 knots, both times IMC, in order to get the door closed. When they open at 140 knots it's enought to scare the daylights out of you.

[Shawn Coyle]

I agree that having a door open in flight (or any other loud noise) is scary. But it's no reason to go to pieces. By it's nature and the laws of physics, a door hinged at the front isn't going to protrude very far into the slipstream.
I agree- this should not have been a fatal accident.

[SASless]

From the accident report....

The bubble door hinges and latching mechanism were in the burnt remains of the main wreckage. The door was still connected by its hinges to the door frame, and the emergency door release handle was in the stowed position. The door latches and door handle were in the unlatched position.

[212man]

The climb got progressively steeper before the nose suddenly dropped. The dropping of the nose is consistent with the pilot pushing forward on the cyclic control in an attempt to recover from the nose-high attitude. The pilot should have been aware of the dangers of mast bumping through the pilot's initial helicopter licensing training and subsequent experience with helicopter operations. It is likely that, in the pilot's preoccupation with the open door, he did not apply the corrective actions required to recover from a nose-high attitude. This allowed the helicopter to enter a low-g condition, which in turn led to mast bumping and the in-flight breakup of the helicopter.

This paragraph seems to be contradicting itself. Having ASSUMED, the climb became progressively steeper (though the first sentence reads as if it came from FDR data) the board suggests that the pilot's sudden recovery caused the reduced loading -the pilot pushing forward on the cyclic control in an attempt to recover from the nose-high attitude

But later they imply the low-g condition developed without pilot input - It is likely that, in the pilot's preoccupation with the open door, he did not apply the corrective actions required to recover from a nose-high attitude

I'd go with the first statement - the pilot propably found himself with no airspeed point skywards and 'shoved' the cyclic forward more quickly than was wise.

[ReverseFlight]

Doors must be popping open quite regularly, and here's just one example.

I was once backseating an instructional flight where the student was on his first time in a Longranger for a type endorsement. Just before reaching circuit height his (right) door popped open. The left-seated instructor immediately took over the controls and the student had to slam the door back with both hands several times before it could be shut and latched properly. No simple feat as the front doors of a Longie are quite heavy and the slipstream wasn't making it easy for him.

[Scissorlink]

Initiate descent with collective, do up friction a little, hold door handle.. bleed off airspeed with cyclic, hopefully you will be slowing right down while maintaining height now...quietly close door and lock, nose forward, friction off. power in.....carry on

[Runway101]

Had my front left door pop open last December with 3 PAX on board. Asked passenger on right seat to hold on to it and landed in a field close by.

I thoroughly checked the door and the mechanism involved for closing, and found it to be out of shape (stuff didn't seem in place) and it was difficult to close again. My first thought was the outside air temp which was below zero C at that time.

Back on base, everything worked like a charm again, and upon subsequent checking in the following weeks I've never found a problem again. Maybe the door wasn't latched correctly at the first place and that's what caused it to be out of shape a bit.

To be on the "safe side" I decided on a best way of handling such a situation when it would happen again, me alone without anybody who could hold on to it. Luckily it didn't happen again.

In any case, I'll probably never see these passengers again unless they are in for another adrenalin kick.

Makes me dream of a beautiful EC120 (= the Audi of light helicopters?) at night. I am not going to say what make the helicopter was but I guess you all know it. But reading these reports it seems it's a common problem and not type specific.

[Sir Niall Dementia]

Had the right door of a 355 pop when I was in the left seat of the aircraft. No duals were fitted and the P1 couldn't close it. He slowed the aircraft and I got into the back and tried to close it. He was low time with only 15 hours on the 355 and he let the nose drop and the speed rapidly increase as I was about to latch the thing. The airflow seemed to curl round the door wrenching it open, buggering up my collar bone and all the muscle and tendons in that area. Up until then I believed the airflow would hold the thing just ajar, but at 70kt it goes full open at very high speed.

Hurt like hell and as usual was a case of an old 355 with mighty abused doors.

[chopjock]

Surely if the left door opens in flight, apply right pedal and fly out of trim and the door will close itself!

[heliski22]

Had it happens many years ago on the cabin door of a 206B, with pax in the back. Caused great excitement amongst the pax, particularly because of the explosive burst of sound from rushing air that accompanied the actual opening. Rather than trying to brief already excited pax on what to do next (the pre-departure brief told them how to open the door, not to close it in flight!) I just aimed it into the nearest field and sorted it on the ground.

Also had a caption on a 109E one time because the upper pin on the pilot's side cockpit door hadn't gone properly home while closing it on the ground. Shortly after take-off, the buffetting got enough to pull the door out a little at the top, enought to activate the switch and give me a caption.

I just left the controls alone, the aircraft was already established in the cimb-out and the Force Trim held them just where they were, and proceeded to release the door with a view to closing it properly.

However, even passing 40kts, once the door was actually open, even just a little bit, it caused an awesome racket, was extremely difficult to get closed and I thought "Right, I won't be doing that again!!"

It's such a tragedy the pilot didn't just leave it and get it down first, particularly as a colleague had the same or a similar problem and was able to bring the aircraft to the hover without incident.

[WhirlwindIII]

I guess things that startle a pilot are relative to the environment. In RVN some things like small arms hitting the helicopter became somewhat par for the course unless lights or problems started to appear. In civil aviation when one does not expect something like a door popping open at 140 knots, or so, it can be a big event that should be discussed, at least, in training. Losing control through fear is not an option.

[spencer17]

I guess nearly everybody of us had that experience in his flying career.
It's no reason to kill yourself by holding the door and getting into an uncontrollable attitude.
The pilot had more than 10,000 hours experience. He really must have had a bad day.

[Bladecrack]

It is tragic that someone died beacuse of a door opening in flight..

The first time that it happened me was in a 206B3 and it was a bit of a shock, but the pax behind me gave me a hand and I soon got it closed, luckily nothing blew out the door. No big drama. It became a regular occurance when flying old 206B2's.. The key is not to panic, if you can close it safely close it, if not land. Never stop flying the helicopter!

[WhirlwindIII]

Pilot had more than 10,000 hours experience. Perhaps there was more to this event than meets the eye/s / investigation?

[rotorrookie]

I been there like ten time in Long Ranger when the door pops open... it scares the **** out of me every time, for a sec or two.

I find it strange that +10k hrs pilot is caught off guard like that, obviously panics and stops flying the dam thing:confused:with this tragic outcome

[mikelimapapa]

Happened to me in a R44 at about 100kts, but in my case it was self inflicted. Student flying, somehow the conversation came up about a door being unlatched in flight....me being the all-knowing instructor, I confidently told the student that nothing would happen due to the airflow pushing against it. I then preceded to unlatch said door followed by a very loud :mad:. Tried unsucessfully to pull it closed for a second or two, then had the bright idea to reach over and push the fresh air vent closed which thankfully worked. Made sure student understood he was to never to speak of said incident and continued rest of flight. :ugh:

Live and learn.

Mike

[ADRidge]

Had a similar incident in a -44, although not as fast. No biggie, as duals were installed. I closed and latched the door, end of story. I agree that any odd/loud noise has the potential to startle a pilot, but I also agree that an unlatched door simply should not kill people. However, all it takes is a second, and any one of us could be the subject of a similar investigation.

[dammyneckhurts]

Closing a bubble door in a bell medium while in flight is sometimes not an easy task. Many Bells require 2 hands to close the door when sitting on the ground, never mind while in flight. In flight the bubble act like a wing and at 60-80 kts the door sits 25-30 cm open and stays there.

Your speed in most bells needs to be less than 40 kts to get the center latch to close. If you also want the top latch to close, the airspeed needs to be very low, uncomfortably low for no hands flying anyway.

At 20 ish kts, one hand on the latch, body leaning and twisting so you can get the other hand on the strap to pull in the top of the door, cyclic between your knees....problem is when you twist to look up at the top latch and struggle with it for a few seconds its easy to loose peripheral vision of the horizon. With no hands on the cyclic and no eyes on the horizon the nose comes up pretty quick. Look forward and see nothing but sky grab the cyclic in a panic.....

We will never know exactly what happened that day, could have been a medical issue...could have been some variation of the above.

The door closure system in many types of helicopters just plain suck when you think about it.

[gwelo shamwari]

Beyond belief. I've flown in the Gulf of Mexico in aircraft with 25000+hrs and doors popping open is a common occurrence. I am not sure about the bubble window, but in 206B's and LongRangers there is no need to panic (unless you did not clean up loose items in the back), just slow down to 40-60kts, put in some opposite pedal and slam it shut. If it does not latch, still no need to panic the slipstream will keep it from opening too far, proceed to landing site and close it on the ground.

[perfrej]

During the type-rating course for the MD500 I was actually tought how to handle the door-pop situation in that kind of helicopter. It just won't close until you're down to about 50 kts. It just stays about 15 degrees open at speeds above that, and you just can't get it shut.

Procedure was actually tested and practised as well. Good type rating instructor!

[flytom]

Took off a couple of times with my door unlatched in a 412, tired, careless, overheated and overworked,(but happy :)). Surreptitiously shut door in climb, no problem.
Had a right door open in a Hughes/Schweiser/Sikorski/whatever /369/500 which at 135knots, with three hours on type, solo, in marginal weather, somewhere in England, did concentrate the mind a little.Fortunately the wee racing pigeon is quite easy to slow down to 60ish and long arms and lots of multi tasking at cocktail parties provided the necessary skill level to wrestle it closed . The subsequent openings every time we went faster than the door opening imp was prepared to tolerate were quite anti-climatic.
I am very sorry that the distraction of an open door should apparently lead to such an accident, but what a reminder to us all that whatever else is going on FLY THE ALLITERATIVE AIRCRAFT.

[tecpilot]

Such an accident killed a Lama pilot a few years ago in Switzerland. After a door opening in flight the pilots coat flew out and into the tail rotor.

There are no new really accidents, unfortunately!

[rotorspin]

ok guys, setting myself up for a fall here I am sure, but I cannot work out the physics of a normal Bell door flying open at 50+knots? The slipstream surely holds it in place?

I can see how a bubble door with its slightly odd characteristic could cause a pressure that could suck it outwards, but a normal door in a 206?

I have never (and don't intend) to open a door mid flight, but just sticking your hand out of the window is enough to tell me that the slipstream even at 40 knots would hold most things firmly in place if you are in trim?

Are you all saying the doors pop fully open? or just open a tad then slam /bang? If they fully open up I need to go and consult my physics book again? Does the slipstream get underneath them or something?

Thought I would ask before I ask for a complete refit of all the 206 locks on my doors with thousands of hours on!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (They seem to be harder to close than open because they are so bent out of shape!)

Cheers Phil, without seeing this on Pprune I would never have even considered the concept of one of the doors flying open! Need more hours for the experience! :ok:

[skidbiter2]

The door doesn't flap, or stick right out.
The door acts like a blade/wing, the more pronounced the bubble is, the further open it will be, most of the doors I have had open up on me,just come ajar by a few inches, as the slip stream wont allow it to open too far, but also wont allow you to close it very easy either, hence slowing down and kicking in the pedal or landing if possible.
Its no big deal really, unless things start flying out.

[WhirlwindIII]

rotorspin

Think high and low pressure areas - that's alleged to be why the door stays open a modest amount until down to @60kts IAS or less. By modest amount an SK76 door will be open @3-4" at 140 knots. It's not so much the amount the door is open that generates a thread but the explosive nature of it doing its thing that garners the attention; that and the fact that the only way on that aircraft to get it closed is to slow down, a lot. Not great fun when IMC, but doable.

I never really had a problem with this until flying the BH222 and SK76 - suspect it was self induced by not paying proper attention to closing/locking doors!

Seems perfrej got the right training on this problem!

WIII

[3LW]

It doesnt seem correct that someone with that amount of experience would freak to that extent about his door opening in flight. I understand that he'd be concerned about not being able to see his load with it open and would feel the need to pickle it, but the report doesnt seem to jibe with my intuition. Everyone who flies a teeter-totter should be well aware of the nasty side effects of unloading it like that.

I've had both my door and an aft pax-door open in flight and its a non-event (in 206B3 that is). I did however wind up cracking my little slide window when I was pulling it the door closed with my left hand; that sucked. Ever since mine opened on me I began briefing pax about not freaking about it if it happened. One day a woman snagged something on the twist latch, it opened and she just told me and I landed. I know she was unusal, and most pax might be a lot more squeamish and might let out a scream, but I think the briefing really helps them understand that nothings going to happen to them. ( I also never allow any pesky small kids to sit anywhere but supervised in the aft center seat for this reason).

It just seems like something more must have contributed to him getting into a mast-bumping situation.

[JTobias]

All,

I'm slightly confused for a number of reasons.

Firstly I can't remember the last time I flew in a chopper where the doors were completeley sealed! It seems they all have ill fitting doors and despite repeated corrective action on the ground they seem to work themselves free again.

I've had a door pop open on me a number of times and I find the best thing to do is to put it on the deck and sort it out. Last year I was flying a 480 with my 14 year old son in the RHS. He was happily reading the latest Harry Potter book when he announced that his door had popped open at the top.

He flies with me regularly and didn't even bat an eyelid, just carried on listening to his iPod and reading his book. For a moment I was tempted to carry on to my destination which was only 10 minutes off as my son certainly wasn't bothered.

I did however put it in a field and shut the door.

I'm also surprised that a pilot with that much experience would allow a situation to develop to such an extent due to a door opening in flight.

A terrible shame.

Joel

[rotorspin]

Just come back from a flight where my drivers door popped open 100knts 2000ft on a 206B3

The main thing is the banging was very rhythmical to the point I had already entered auto and was taking a good look at the instruments before being happy it was just a door and giving it a pull to test.

We were close enough to the airfield to spin around and pop it back on grass, but with a little pedal it keeps the door from carrying on flapping around until you reach 40knots-ish.

Its only when you are down that the rotor down wash sends the door flying open!

Thought I would share my experience on this old thread as I know it is a common occurrence to many, but for the 1st time "door opening mid flight" experience, reading this thread prior to it happening to me really helped me not to panic!!!

[FH1100 Pilot]

Interesting story, rotorspin. First times are always startling. You are correct, playing with the yaw trim can minimize the flapping. And yes, the door may open fully upon landing, so hope for good, strong restraint straps as well as a strong wind and then land into it!. I've found that most 206 doors can be closed if you slow down to 60 mph or so.

But I'm curious about your event. As a fellow 206B driver, why did you enter auto and *then* look at the gauges? Reason I ask is that over the years I've known a number of pilots who have related similar stories about "anomalies" in flight and their first reaction was to enter the auto.

Are we helicopter pilots that spring-loaded to autorotation? Even when that might not be the right thing to do at the time? And if so, why?

Curious.

[Freewheel]

Anybody with time in a Robinson R22 has a hair trigger auto reflex.

It's quite a difficult thing to overcome later on. I'm still working on it.....

[stinkychicken]

Even coming from a robbie background, the door has popped and finished popping and nothing else has happened before you can even think of lowering the col.

I guess with some turbine time, worse case you may think it was a sticky bleed valve for a split second :eek:

[VfrpilotPB/2]

In my eagerness to fly after my pre-flight, I went through all the start up with a shiney new R22, just prior to switching on the noisey thing I pulled the door shut, started and after a couple of minutes took off, to fly up the coast past the Victorian Blackpool Tower and on to Lancaster, just abeam that tower and feeling a little contrained I moved my torso to get a little more comfy, and found the reason of my discomfort was my Hi Viz was trapped in the door, that was why I was a little constrained, however once my 16stone bulk had forced the Hi Viz material out from between door and frame/body the door shot out and was at 90 deg to Heli, I could only turn the heli in order to get the door back(for I could not reach the thing) but found then I didnt have enough "Wriggle" room to latch the door, so after explaining to the ATc what appeared to have happened, I found a field landed just for a few secs, latched the door, without the Hi Viz being in it this time, and finished my flight to Lancaster, It supprised me that it had happened in that way,.. but now the very last thing I ever check before starting any engine, is the door latch and frame of whatever heli I am in!:O

PeterR-B
Vfr

[rotorspin]

FH1100 - hadn't put all the details

Jetbox had just come out of an extensive annual plus avionics overhaul taking almost 3 months to complete. First flying hour after sign off and so mindful of any potential snags.

At 2k, 100 knots the door popped with one large bang and then a rhythmical banging. Frankly at first sound it could have been any of the umpteen components that had just been replaced - so a powered descent was entered into whilst I gave a quick diagnosis... why?

My decision was based on our height (2k), only 2 pob and a third of a fuel tank which made us very light so I knew it would be a while to get us down if it was something serious (eg gear box / transmission other) that hadn't triggered a light.

Yes, I have trained and owned Robbie's (22's and 44's), but have had many different types of failures in heli's which have not made me dump the collective.

Would I do the same again? Probably if I had the height, speed, had just come out of maintenance and was very light.

Going back to the point it is articles like this where we see a pilot die due to a very bizarre door opening incident and pilots sharing their experiences & comments that makes me come back to Pprune time and time again.

Had I ever been told about doors flying open mid-flight by anybody before reading Pprune before? Nope.....not by instructors or others...

[johndeblanco]

Had the door open in flight in an ancient 22, scared the crap outa me!!
Never thought about auto though.

On climb out from a private site at 400 ft around 60 knts, the door latch worked loose ( a known fault on this particular robbie) , locked the lever and calmly closed it with left hand, flew rest of trip with my elbow on the latch to stop it vibrating up and loose!!

[Harry76]

Over the years I've had a few doors pop in 206's and had door lights in 76's and usually it has been no big deal. The main thing to remember is, "don't panic".
I once had a 206 passenger door (left/rear) pop open in flight. I asked the guy sitting there to just open it again and give it a 'bit of a slam'. Of course he did this trying to close it whilst holding onto the open window and the inevitable happend. The whole window came in, in his hand. There he was holding a complete window in the rear seat with a silly grin on his face. Moral of that story, be careful what you say to the untrained.

The one that scarred me the most though was an AS350 baggage bay door that popped in flight. I was on descent at 120KIAS for a ship landing to pick up a Marine Pilot. I heard a muffled bang and felt a buffet. I decelaerated immediatly and completed a normal landing but this time I shut down on the ship to investigate. I found that the L/H cheek door had not been latched correctly at the front part of the door and had opened due to the air loads imposed. In the time it took me to slow down, the air pulling at the door had applied such a load to the forward hinge (one piece pressed metal) that the hinge had started to peel open and was only hanging on by the smallest margin. I shudder to think what would of happend had it let go. Moral of that story, when you do your walk around and look for open cowls and doors, have a really good look and not just a cursorary one as I did that day. Like the saying goes, "learn from others mistakes as you won't live long enough to make them all yourself".
Fly Safe
Harry

[Fareastdriver]

A North Sea Super Puma flying back to Aberdeen with zero passengers many years ago.
There a thump and the cockpit door indicator shows that the port passenger door was unsafe. Captain looks back and sees a gap where the door has unlatched and sprung out to the travel rail. (A Puma passenger door is very much like a sliding door on a people carrier). The co-pilot is instructed/volunteers to go and shut it.
The captain slows the aircraft down to 70 knots as the co-pilot climbs out of his seat. He has to disconnect himself from the intercom to go to the cabin and the captain gives him a final instruction as he does so.
The co-pilot goes up to the door to close it. No harness, no nothing. He puts his hands on the handles to pull it closed just as the door flies off. He is left standing there looking down at the sea 2000 ft. below. He then, very quietly, returns to his seat and they fly the aircaft back to Aberdeen.
The final instructions from the captain before he went back to close the door were still on the cockpit voice recorder back at Aberdeen.

"If you fall out wrap yourself into ball and then it wont hurt so much when you hit the sea."