Owen, the hydraulic fluid (called "skydrol") is pink/purple to make a leak easier to spot

There must be an embarrassed person out there with a pocket full of fasteners.... :E

Once upon a time, many years ago, I boarded a Delta jet at SFO somewhat early. I had a seat on the aisle in an emergency exit row. I was just making my nest when three Delta employees showed up and asked the lady in the row across from me if she would mind getting up for a few minutes. She got up and they proceeded to open the exit door (it was a lot heavier than I would have thought) and all get out on the wing. They stood there looking down at a small access door about six to ten feet out from the fuselage and then one of them, presumably the mechanic (engineer to non U.S. readers), took a roll of duct tape (aka speed tape) out of his overalls and proceeded to carefully apply tape along the edges of the door, overlapping both the door and the wing. He stood up, the other two (presumably an inspector and a supervisor) nodded their heads, and they all clambered back inside. It took a little jiggling and manhandling to get the door back in place but they did, thanked the lady, and departed the airplane. Passengers kept boarding through all of this.

The folks on that side of the jet kept the rest of us informed as to the condition of the duct tape all the way to Dallas...

There is just a slight difference between speed tape and duct tape. If you don't believe me, go out and buy some speed tape but make sure you have a bank loan in position first.

Not test kit, thats the flexible hydraulic hose ripped off its mounting.

The gear would still come down under gravity extension if the ram doesn't work.

It looks like there are a few sheared fasteners on the edge nearest the window and on the aft edge nearest the window, possibly job started and not handed over properly. Composite panel would rip right off on take-off although I'd expect it to pull over the screw heads rather than shear them off.

Great photos from the passenger though!

http://avherald.com/h?article=471862b4&opt=0

I would image a fair bit of force on that panel during flight...someone calculate that for me....
weight of the aircraft/wing area would give the weight per square inch then multiply by the area of the hatch...

What's the number?

.. afew tons I expect!

Nobody has even said yet what type of aircraft it is...

Wasn't it Delta debris that supposedly ended Concorde's career, quelle chagrin!

@harryman : It's apparently a 757

Skydrol is purple when concentrated in one location, like a reservoir, but when it spreads out over a surface, it's almost colorless.

Unlike MIL-H-5606, which leaves reddish stains wherever a leak exists.

Best indicator of a slow leak or seepage of Skydrol on the outside of an aircraft is to find deteriorated / bubbled paint. It's a better paint stripper than chemicals specifically designed for that purpose...

You are talking about the aerodynamic forces?, if so the Calculation is more complex than working out wing loading and dividing by area

Firstly, its only the top skin missing, the underside of that area is still contributing a large percentage of the lift that it would produce, if the upper surface was intact.

Also it is apparently about 60% chord so aft of the CP and flow disruption
may well be quite minimal.

In all it probably had a far smaller effect on L/D than you might imagine

As for the percentage of structural strength of the wing it contributes, would, for me be a guess, so I wont bother....OK I'll bother...< 3%

Too much De-Icing? :}




What would be the fuel penalty factor with such a hole?!

You could try reading the first post...

Work it out from here and let us know...
Boeing 757 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HarryMann it was a Continental DC10 not any DAL aircraft.:)

Nice line but try again, no loan is needed for a $30 roll of Scotch 425.

I hope the crew amended the Zero Fuel Mass before landing, otherwise the calculated landing mass and the load/trimsheet would have been inaccurate?

Tea but NO biscuits with flight management! ! ! ! :=

That's a bit harsh, Barking. When did you last inspect the access panels on the top of your wings? Woof woof!

Unannunciated checklist
 

Wonder how much they added to V ref for that one !

Still speed taping hatches on newer airplanes

Seems like this sort of thing happens to Delta a lot more often than the other US Legacies.


Their older fleet is starting to creak a little.

I think if the mechanic forgets to put the screws back in, the age of the aircraft has little bearing!

Stilton, if you had read the article fully you would have realised that the panel normally is never removed as it is fitted with a mixture of hi-loks, rivets and fasteners. Only Boeing know why there is that mix, with a hydraulic leak a burst of pressure could push the panel up and off where the leak is situated, remember the pressure is approx 3000psi.