Southwest 737 cargo door incident

[BUGS/BEARINGS/BOXES]

Just seen this on ABC news.

Southwest flight from Houston to Dallas takes off with cargo door open at Hobby Airport | abc7news.com (http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local&id=9238123)

Apparently a 737 took off with the cargo door open. :hmm:

[BARKINGMAD]

Difficult to pressurise the cabin then?

Only problem I can see is the trail of suitcases falling out with very small risk of hitting stabiliser.

However, if the door decided to partially close under "g", the resulting pressure surge would not be a good thing if the diff "helped" it to seat closed?

Had a rear cargo door light at 110kts on departure, pressurisation OK, continued to destination where we were unable even to pull out the handle to attempt to open the door.

Turns out the "keyring" on the insecure door closing lanyard had been trapped in the latch mechanism by a gorilla loader, all lights out on pushback and taxi and initial pre80kts roll.

Aft cargo door light, at night at that speed not what I wanted to see, but a lucky correct decision to GO! :hmm:

[J.O.]

Define "open". Don't be surprised if it turns out to be nothing more than a bad sensor or a door handle that wasn't fully engaged in the locked position, both of which are a far cry from an open door.

[Alexander de Meerkat]

It is inconceivable to me that any Southwest crew took off with a cargo door 'open'. J.O.'s explanation seems much more likely to me.

[Lancelot de boyles]

They have a mixed fleet?

PSEU- If it's an NG. non dispatch item.

Master caution would give a warning light, too.
ground crew pre push checks

I can't see this as being anything more than a door indicator. I'd doubt the authenticity of this comment-

Jeff Weingart was killing time at the airport when he saw it all unfold.

"I couldn't believe my eyes," he said. "I couldn't believe a plane as sophisticated as they are would take off with the cargo door open."

[lomapaseo]

too little facts even to speculate about.

Suitable for spectator's opinions.

[flyingchanges]

There was a shocking sight for some folks at Hobby Airport Thursday evening, as they watched a plane take off with a cargo door open.

Oh the horror, I bet they sue for emotional distress...

[bubbers44]

I landed a 737 at LAS once and the ground guy said This is the first time I saw an aircraft park with the cargo door open. We were totally unaware of it, the aircraft pressurized normally but being plug type doors they must have been held closed while pressurized and after landing opened approaching the gate when pressure was released.

[DaveReidUK]

Sloppy journalism at its best.

"There was a shocking sight for some folks" = we couldn't actually find any eyewitnesses, but there are bound to have been some

"Jeff Weingart was killing time at the airport" = the next name that came up on our stock list of fictitious characters to whom we could attribute an invented quote

About the only fact that appears beyond dispute is that SWA48 does show two departure times from HOU yesterday on FlightAware, so clearly it did return for some reason.

[Jwscud]

I have had a "DOORS" caption pop up before on the 737 - the QRH suggests you remain below 10K/descend and depressurise if pressurisation is not normal, but if it's normal you can continue normal flight.

In our case it was a duff sensor that was dealt with at our destination.

Unlikely to be open - at least 3 opportunities for the crew alone to catch it I can think of prior to departure.

[JW411]

One evening at Cork, the 727 doing the UPS schedule got airborne with the rear cargo door unlocked. The packages started coming out at VR and continued to decorate the countryside all the way round the circuit until it landed back. I have forgotten what most of the boxes contained but it was very expensive.

I think they also had to shut No.3 down.

Anyway, it gave a whole new meaning to being a freight distributor!

[captjns]

727-200 doors open outwards, still plug type doors however. The -100s open inward.

[JammedStab]

One evening at Cork, the 727 doing the UPS schedule got airborne with the rear cargo door unlocked. The packages started coming out at VR and continued to decorate the countryside all the way round the circuit until it landed back. I have forgotten what most of the boxes contained but it was very expensive.

I think they also had to shut No.3 down.

Anyway, it gave a whole new meaning to being a freight distributor!

I believe they also accelerated to a very high speed prior to reducing it if I remember the report correctly. The wide open door does interfere with the airflow into the #3 engine. There was some question about a microswitch that was never resolved but obviously the door was never latched.

In another report I read, the lower cargo door on this type was closed by groundcrew but not latched. It was close to the faired position but with the handle was sticking out. But being nighttime it was not noticed by anybody. The microswitch was working in that case. The report noted that it is possible for someone to give a quick look at the door annunciator panel very quickly and if you are not paying attention, mix up the APU light for the cargo door light as they are one above the other.

The outward opening cargo doors on the -200 are not plug type doors. That is why that door at Cork opened up to distribute cargo.

These outward opening doors do have some sort of balance mechanism to make a very heavy lower cargo door easy to operate to open and close. If it is not working, you then realize how heavy these doors actually are.

[Blink182]

If the internal spring in the handle mechanism breaks ( and it has done at least a few times ...... There is a SB from Boeing about the issue) then the weight of the internal handle can rotate the latches open and door counterbalance opens door inwards. Only happens when unpressurized of course.

[Basil]

Anyway, it gave a whole new meaning to being a freight distributor!
Very amusing.
I'd a B757 cargo door proximity sensor break off (get knocked off) on the ground in Spain. I was happy to see door closed and have 'Door Open' warning on FD but I sure as hell covered my ass with signal from Maintrol before setting off :ok:
See you on't 4/10?