Air India flight attendant falls from plane

[wabulabantu]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45860878

An Air India flight attendant has been injured after falling from the door of a parked aeroplane at India's Mumbai airport.

Harsha Lobo was preparing the flight for boarding to Delhi on Monday morning when the incident happen.

[CRayner]

Oh dear! A compound fracture of tibia and fibula is a nasty injury with potential for permanent disability. I do hope she and the airline are sufficiently insured.

[aterpster]

Originally Posted by wabulabantu

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45860878

An Air India flight attendant has been injured after falling from the door of a parked aeroplane at India's Mumbai airport.

Harsha Lobo was preparing the flight for boarding to Delhi on Monday morning when the incident happen.

How sad.I can see how that can happen, especially when using stairs rather than a jetway.

[Nightstop]

Er no. It seems as if steps were probably removed before the door was closed, what kind of SOP is that?

[xniting]

I hope the lady gets better soon. I'm a layman and I understand human error/accidents happen etc. but under want kind of circumstances could this happen to a trained crew member?

[EEngr]

Originally Posted by Nightstop

Er no. It seems as if steps were probably removed before the door was closed, what kind of SOP is that?

777 doors swing outwards*. It's possible that, without the correct stairs (if such things exist), one must back the stairs away from the aircraft to get enough clearance to swing the doors. The resulting gap is something that someone might fall into should they lack the strength to reach out and pull the door shut.

*A linkage that allows the door to swing out but remain parallel to the side of the plane.

[nicolai]

Here's a video of someone closing a 777 door. It's relevant that the person is a woman, as in this accident, and therefore has a fairly short reach and slight build (compared to most men).

This is fairly clearly a training article, so the door doesn't close as well as the real door, but it shows the technique.
Notice that you have to reach quite far out to grab the door operating handle to bring the door in. There's a handle on the door frame and the correct way to do it is as shown: grab the frame handle, brace your feet, lean out and grab the door handle and then lean back in, pushing on the frame handle and pulling on the door handle to get the door to move.
Now imagine if someone didn't brace and lean back, or the floor was slippery, or they leaned out with both hands to grab the door handle. They would be close to falling out and poorly balanced - especially if they used both hands on the door and just tried to pull it in.
It's a 5m drop to the concrete from the door sill if there is a gap to the stair or airbridge, or those have been removed, or this is a door opened for ventilation or service (galley, etc) rather than next to a stair or bridge. Definitely serious injury territory, death if you're unlucky (landing on your head).

[visibility3miles]

A pilot fell a few years ago due to a gap between the door and stairway then fell thirty feet to the ground.

Bad luck, fatigue, inattention, and missing your step can result in a bad fall.

[misd-agin]

Originally Posted by visibility3miles

A pilot fell a few years ago due to a gap between the door and stairway then fell thirty feet to the ground.

Bad luck, fatigue, inattention, and missing your step can result in a bad fall.

777-300 door height is 15'9" to 16'10" off the ground. Roughly 5 meters.

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by nicolai

It's a 5m drop to the concrete from the door sill if there is a gap to the stair or airbridge, or those have been removed, or this is a door opened for ventilation or service (galley, etc) rather than next to a stair or bridge.

It was reportedly the L5 door, so we can probably discount an airbridge.

[belfrybat]

It does look quite heavy, and not very well balanced, the lady had a bit of a struggle. No thought of hydraulic or pneumatic assist?

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by belfrybat

It does look quite heavy, and not very well balanced, the lady had a bit of a struggle. No thought of hydraulic or pneumatic assist?

We don't yet know that what happened to the poor Air India F/A had anything to do with the operation of the door being unwieldy, in fact the 777 door isn't known for being particularly difficult to open/close compared to other Boeing aircraft.

[Tray Surfer]

777 is very easy to open/close compared to the 747/757/737 with their type of door opening.

Hope she recovers well and it leads to a review of any AI SOPs regarding door operation and ground equipment placement.

At my old airline it was simply a no to even consider opening/closing a door without proper ground equipment in place. So, hopefully, whatever happened in this incident can be rectified or changed to ensure this does not happen again.

[Machism]

Once when boarding an Air India plane I saw one feet gap between the plane and the ladder. I jumped in the plane

[BAengineer]

Originally Posted by Tray Surfer

At my old airline it was simply a no to even consider opening/closing a door without proper ground equipment in place. So, hopefully, whatever happened in this incident can be rectified or changed to ensure this does not happen again.

Door 5 (where this incident happened) is used by many airlines for access for the cleaners using a high loader van and in many cases the cleaners finish when there are no crew on the aircraft and they simply place the safety strap across the open door as only cabin crew and engineering are allowed to close and latch the door. The cabin crew or engineer will then finally close the door when they arrive on the aircraft to get it ready for service. I dont think it is practical (or even needed) for steps to placed on the aircraft simply to close the door - possibly an acceptance by the cabin crew crew that the tiny girls might struggle so best to wait for someone stronger or just call Engineering to close it.