DHL B752 at Leipzig on Feb 13th 2021, cargo door opened in flight
Most freighters with large doors have limits on opening the door whilst on the ground and the wind is above a certain speed, due to the force exerted. In flight at say 200 kts this force would be considerably higher.
IIRC the BAE146 airframe can distort slightly to the extent where the door can’t be closed until the wind speed dies down.
Boeing built pretty solid aircraft back in the day.
IIRC the BAE146 airframe can distort slightly to the extent where the door can’t be closed until the wind speed dies down.
Boeing built pretty solid aircraft back in the day.
What does a takeoff stall and crash due to miss-loaded cargo have to do with a cargo door opening in flight?
Last edited by tdracer; 15th Feb 2021 at 02:11.
The flight data on this will be interesting to view. The directional stability would have been degraded greatly, and possibly asymmetrically, so it is fortuitous that it was at low speed and low altitude for better damping functions, but, impressive anyway. An ASB at the very least or an AD would be a reasonable course of action.
Nice to see the plane in one piece after that episode.
Nice to see the plane in one piece after that episode.
I've seen more than one of these on both small twin jets and four engine aircraft. nothing special in handling. In the DC8 the pilot didn't even know it had popped other than the noise increase. I always remember the co-pilot/flight engineer walking back to the gaping hole with a shocked look on his face as I was looking up from directly underneath (in a chase car) after it came to a stop. I vaguely remember the twin somewhere in Texas and reviewed the FDR but without scouring my harddrive I don't recall performance details in the ATB
krismiler
"Most freighters with large doors have limits on opening the door whilst on the ground and the wind is above a certain speed, due to the force exerted. In flight at say 200 kts this force would be considerably higher."
For the aircraft in question, limits are 25 kts to open the door fully, 45 kts to open to the horizontal-ish.
"Most freighters with large doors have limits on opening the door whilst on the ground and the wind is above a certain speed, due to the force exerted. In flight at say 200 kts this force would be considerably higher."
For the aircraft in question, limits are 25 kts to open the door fully, 45 kts to open to the horizontal-ish.
Gnome de PPRuNe
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Not Fine Air, think it was Tampa.
Klauss
"Cargo doors do give a red light in the cockpit when they are not locked. Thatīs a very obvious light..."
Depending on the operator, the Door Indication System can be an MEL item.
In that case, the aircraft can be despatched with the system inop, provided that an external visual check of the locks is made before departure.
That typically involves a cherry-picker, torch and (if necessary) a means of cleaning the 8 Plexiglass viewports through which the latches can be checked. What could possibly go wrong?
"Cargo doors do give a red light in the cockpit when they are not locked. Thatīs a very obvious light..."
Depending on the operator, the Door Indication System can be an MEL item.
In that case, the aircraft can be despatched with the system inop, provided that an external visual check of the locks is made before departure.
That typically involves a cherry-picker, torch and (if necessary) a means of cleaning the 8 Plexiglass viewports through which the latches can be checked. What could possibly go wrong?
IIRC the BAE146 airframe can distort slightly to the extent where the door can’t be closed until the wind speed dies down
It's been known to happen with several freight door equipped airframes. I've got a story about a 'twisted' VC10 here: https://www.vc10.net/Memories/everyt...f.html#Twisted
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The cargo door light is amber on this one and you can't miss it, there are indicators at the operating panel and last the ramp agent does a walk around and checks for the doors closed.
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Not familiar with this aircraft, but some operators of the 757 cargo version also have a RED main cargo door warning light above the nose gear green light to indicate that the "main cargo door isn't, closed, latched and locked".
Not this one. On the door control panel there is a column of four amber lights. As the door closes they go out sequentially from the bottom indicating in order: closed, latched, locked, vent doors closed. On the same panel there is a master red light which goes out when the door is closed, latched, locked. All these lights are really bright. The master light is repeated on the Cp instrument panel immediately to the right of the PFD and is either red or amber, also very bright. Hopefully this helps.
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Jhieminga
Cprrect,, had a couple at Brize myself where they couldn’t shut the door after refuel with it open, offloading fuel, shutting it then refuelling again always sorted it.
Cprrect,, had a couple at Brize myself where they couldn’t shut the door after refuel with it open, offloading fuel, shutting it then refuelling again always sorted it.
Surprised nobody picked it up, same thing happened to a 757 freighter in 2014, it was updated on AVH yesterday:
The incident was blamed on ice/snow blocking/freezing the latches. That may well have been the case with DHL too with he current cold spell in Europe.
A Yakutia Airlines Boeing 757-200 freighter, registration VQ-BPY performing flight R3-9990 from Magadan to Yakutsk (Russia), was climbing out of Magadan when the crew stopped the climb at 2000 meters due to the forward cargo door opening.
I seem to recall a B747 passenger plane having problems with its cargo latches as well and long ago a couple of DC10s used brute force on those nasty latches to force the door closed for awhile.
So to flesh this out we need to understand what fail safe features exist on the B757
So to flesh this out we need to understand what fail safe features exist on the B757