It would seem that the engineer at LHR should have sorted the faulty door seal there properly rather than signing the aircraft off for the next sector. Rings tales of SQ cutting corners to keep the planes flying, no doubt the crew will get gong's for their actions on return to Singapore.

And why on earth did they choose Baku it was bound to be a nightmare for the passengers....

Almost certainly the engineer that signed the aircraft off would not have been SIA, unless they now base engineers in London?


"Rings tales of SQ cutting corners to keep the planes flying"

Got any evidence of that happening ITman? Maybe you just don't like SIA?

You are obviously neither an engineer or a pilot...

Door seal can be noisy, checked, unable to find anything wrong, few flights later may act up again. Many possible reasons. In this case it was obviously more going by the photo but no engo in his right mind would sign off an aircraft that he thought was not fit to operate within the scope of allowable limits. Personally through more than a few airlines I've seen and heard 'noisy doors' on all types yes inc 380. In all but one case it settled within a few minutes and was down to sand/pebble/water in the door. At all carriers was SOP to check prior to closing. Impossible to see sand/tiny pebbles. In one other case it was a slight dent in the metal door plate which was microscopic and easily given a temp fix by engineer until it could get to the hangar.

as for Baku, PIC obviously felt it was good enough, his arse was on the line too....

As for all the pax complaints about Baku, this old saying applies - "its better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground"

Where did the problem start ? What alternative options did he have ? It's Tiger Country out there, and who are you to criticise ?

Off topic, I guess, but why would a door leak make the cabin colder? It's not like cold air's leaking in from outside. :hmm:

Lower air pressure = lower temps

The MSA's in that part of the world are quite high and may have precluded continued flight at 10,000ft to anywhere else.

More pictures of the door

http://s7.directupload.net/images/140107/69xvawtb.jpg

http://s1.directupload.net/images/140107/23cu5syz.jpg

In interesting picture although not sure to understand exactly what has failed (you seem that the door structure has failed but seems quite extreme if only induced by pressure differential...) ?

Haven't been there recently but wasn't Terminal 3 supposed to be opened this year ? It seems it would have provided fairly adequate facilities ?

As for alternates, except maybe for Teheran, I don't see what other choices they might had...

Whereas wasting time telling the SLF COULD kill them.....

Door seal problems are notoriously hard to reproduce on the ground because the a/c needs to be pressurised...but in this case I'm confident someone will soon be able to figure out what caused this, not that I can tell anything from the picture, but the gremlins seem to have left clues

It is so irritating when passengers who are ungrateful start to make stupid comments. What's worse is that the press loves stupid comments which are baseless.

Safety first, comfort second. The alternate airport worked for them.

I'm with you glofish, given only 119 flying, reports of incidents seem fairly common for such a small numbers in service. Did the 747 have as many incidents when it was introduced? Perhaps it did but we never heard about it. The A380 and 787 have been born in an era when if you fart in the pointy end we hear about it on the ground even before those around you notice the smell.

What is the A380 procedure if you receive an EICAS Message "Pax door unlocked" at cruising altitude? Manually switch of pressurization and land ASAP? Or does the bus depressurize automatically in that case, just to prevent an explosive event (which potentially is much worse) ?

Sober Lark


Yes it did - the first 747s experienced many problems with the Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines. If that had happened today I hate to think what Pruners would have made of the number of engine shut downs. Glofish would have had a field day!!

:D
Long standing applause ! Must have upon entry to a/c !

if the wx was out at Baku, what to do?

looks a bit sparse on the map---would an A380 at FL10-12 be able to go back to Istanbul from their decent/diversion point?