An Emirates' A380 door "pops" in-flight

[500N]

J-Class

"A combination of (a) + (b) leads to a non-event an an Emirates A380 being blown up out of all proportion. All I'm saying is, one shouldn't be entirely surprised by this."

Understand that, especially A but you need a third factor in the equation
for the "blown up out of all proportion" to occur.

That is a passenger going to the media after the event and the media doing what they do, making a mountain out of a molehill.


If the passenger hadn't gone to the media, would it have become a story ????

[J-Class]

If the passenger hadn't gone to the media, would it have become a story ????

Perhaps not, but we don't know the exact circumstances on board. We don't know if there was panic among passengers. We don't know if an inexperienced stewardess freaked out, leading to panic amongst passengers. If any of this took place, that's would be a story in itself, even if the underlying cause (a leaky seal) was a non-event in safety terms.

As to how the story got to the press: most likely a passenger was either a journalist himself or knew someone who was, and decided to sell the story and picture for a few quid.

The story would have been through in-house lawyers at the Mail prior to publication. The Mail would appreciate that Emirates is a big newspaper advertiser and has deep pockets to defend itself against libellous damage to its reputation. So for that matter does does Airbus. For both these reasons, while the tone of the story may be complete , the story itself probably has enough truth to it that the Mail cannot be attacked for publishing it.

[stuckgear]

before there is more delving into any jingoistic wankfests about boeing or airbus, lets get one thing straight.. all aircraft from all manufacturers undergo certain revisions after entering service, due to the operational wear and tear and in service life cycles on an aircraft as a structure.

both aircraft types are certified under each others aviation administrations as are many other aircraft from different manufacturers around the world.

now if anyone wants to discuss control systems go ahead but be clear about what is a control system and what is a structure.

[500N]

J Class

"We don't know if there was panic among passengers. We don't know if an inexperienced stewardess freaked out, leading to panic amongst passengers. If any of this took place, that's would be a story in itself, even if the underlying cause (a leaky seal) was a non-event in safety terms."

We are in a sorry state of a society if as you described above
"would be a story in itself", even with media beat up.

What has the world come to.

[lomapaseo]

given the number of people involved it is no surprise that all of the above happened. In the end it was handled professionaly, No big deal, so why beat our keyboards over it?

[barit1]

BDiONU:

Originally Posted by barit1

Ummm - Emirates - wouldn't that be Durhams not Dinars?

No it would be Dirhams (Dhs) or AED.

Yeah, I guess so; although it would be properly spelled in the Arabic language, and any translation to a Roman alphabet would be a phonetic one.

[KAG]

Fireflyboy:

How valid are comparisons of accident stats between B747 and A380?

I don't recall of anybody doing such a comparison, never heard about it. May I ask you to what comparison/study you refer to?
If you refer to a post in this thread, may I ask you to quote it as I have not seen such a comparison here?

[Taildragger67]

Astonishingly, according to Mr Reid, instead of making an emergency landing,

Sorry but two hours into a sector from VHHH to VTBS, wouldn't the nearest suitable (if not nearest available for an A380) be VTBS?

On what basis did the pair have

to cut short their $6,800 trip

?

Maybe I'm making some assumptions here here but I would assume that if there was an emergency that the belt-up signs would be illuminated. So how did Mr Reid manage to get the photo, if not by disobeying a reasonable direction from the crew?

So glad Mr Reid's 18 year old son has such a sense of civic duty that he reported the incident to the AAIB. We can also sleep more safely now. Phew.

[SOPS]

I'm also interested in exactly which "curtains" between business class and economy class were "closed". As far as I know what separates Y and J on a EK A380 is a whole floor! Mr Ried is full of ........

[Dg800]

On what basis did the pair have to cut short their $6,800 trip

He had to cut short the trip because of the chest infection, the one he got from the bacteria that rushed in together with the "thin air".

[cockney steve]

If the leaky door-seal problem is so endemic, one would question the maintenance-regime that doesn't ensure a firm seal (adjustment!)

Secondly, stuffing blankets in the gap is hardly a "professional" fix
to the punter it looks as it is...a CC trying to hide a gap with a blanket....presumably said blanket isn't Certified draught-proofing,-so, why not an extra-long "snake" as used in dwellings oop here in 't north,when t' draught under t' door starts shuffling the furniture.

Said soft textile snake could be covered in corporate colours and look as though it was a proper OE fitment/accessory. Pax then wouldn't give it a second thought.

Kleenex/towels/blankets are a BODGE however nonchalantly they're applied.

Don't say they're not effective, but IMO, shouldn't be needed in the first place.

Daily wail is just an entertainment rag aimed at "Angry of Tunbridge Wells"....why get worked up about it?

[Dushan]

Originally Posted by KAG

The B747 has killed 2852 persons. At least 49 B747 were completely destroyed, crashed.
The B747 (around 1500 built) alone has killed more than all the fly by wire airbuses (around 5000 built) ever built together (A319/320/321/330/340/380).
So please don't participate to this witch hunt that we regularly see with the A380, or with the Airbuses in general.

583 (Tenerife) had nothing to do with aircraft type. Others (Pan Am flight 103, Air India flight 182) account for hundreds more. The type has also been in service for 45 years FFS. And if you're going to compare the total number of airframes built then use the same criteria on both sides.

[Perrin]

Don't worry until!!!!!!!

As I used to tell cabin staff don't worry when the whistling goes on, worry when it doesn't and then kiss your a** goodby.

[panda-k-bear]

Dear KAG,

How many of those Airbus hull losses were at Air France?

[The SSK]

'Aeroplane A has designed into its structure the cultural values and virtues of the country it was made in'

'I come from country A'-

[Taildragger67]

Thanks dg800, yes all those nasty bugs up there at FL270...

[skytramp2800]

C'mon, ladies and gents, a simple wiki search "all boeing 747 losses/crashes"
will reveal that most of these tragedies are the result of other than outright mechanical/build shortcomings.
Pilot error, improper repairs, terrorist actions are by far the biggest killers on the type.

[error_401]

Excursion in data analysis

Couldn't pass by without saying someting about dropping figures without proper analysis.

Comparing data to come up with a statistic is easy. Compare data to come up with a meaningful statistic very very hard work.

The risk of an accident is mainly on take-off and on landing. This leads to: The risk associated with accidents of aircraft is related to flights and not the mere number of airframes.

This rises some questions:

If it comes to this I'd like to see the figures about B vs. A on produced airframes.
Could it be that said 747 has a couple more flights than other models?

How does time span (40 years) count in this analysis? How long does A vs. B build airframes?

How do we account for the 60's and 70's where A had hardly any airframes built but some very nasty accidents happened? (The probability that it would be a B was indeed very high at that time - surely higher than being an A - and maybe about the same for an M) See link below and the ref #18 at page 13. (Huh - up to about 2000 B had about 2/3 of western built airframes worldwide?)

Interesting the analysis here:
Competition between Airbus and Boeing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia especially ref #18.

No wonder they get hit more if they fly more...

So get the figures right before misusing them statistically.

I stand corrected.

[BRE]

Well, the Bernoulli principle would allow air at low static pressure to enter into a hole that is a higher static pressure. However, quantitative analysis would probably show that this was not possible here.

[Gauges and Dials]

Denominator! My kingdom for a denominator!

Error_401 is exactly right.

Occupant fatalities divided by occupant-takeoff-landing-cycles is a reasonable measure. Occupant fatalities divided by occupant-miles is a semi-reasonable measure. Occupant fatalities divided by the number of airframes built is a silly measure.