Locks and Stops
 

Fellow Ppruners
Could I ask your help in regard to the moveable ULD stops on the B744?

We have experienced several incidents recently where baggage ULD's on arriving aircraft have shifted in flight and jumped guide rails wedging themselves in. At first site it appeared that the retaining stops had not been raised causing the problem however, the loading teams at each departure station are certain that all stops were in place and ULD's secure prior to the hold doors being closed. The majority of incidents are discovered in the fwd hold.

When the ULD's shift they seem to jump over the raised moveable stop wedging themselves in.

Has anyone else had experience of this problem, or is it possible for the ULD’s to jump raised stops.

When the aircraft is loaded there are no significant gaps between ULD’s other that those specified in the B744 loading manual.

Any ideas or suggestions will be gratefully received.

Cheers
LITOW

Obviously, if all the stops are correctly positioned and all the locks and latches are raised then the ULD should not move.

The previous station said they're sure the ULDs were loaded correctly? Of course they'll say that!!

Or have a look at the ULDs themselves. If the base is warped they can cause problems.

Are you talking about uld's shifting on full flights or partly loaded a/c, as this makes a difference. On a 747 in the lowerdeck, for some combinations of containers you will need a required nimber of uld's, to fill up "zoneloads", to prevent containers to shift in flight.
as an example, if you load an ld1/ld3 on position 11r, it is mandatory to fill up as well 12r. On the other hand 13l /and 13r can be locked individually. :)

Good responses from the rest.
I may suggest checking the wear limits
on the railings and ULD stops.
Obviously they are subject
to a lot of wear and tear.
Most probably as stated earlier
they may not have been secured properly.