BA777 loses door 2L at Cape Town
 

https://onemileatatime.com/news/brit...or-ripped-off/

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....23ae256415.jpg
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Image via @airline_kitty Twitter


Thread title amended from CPT to Cape Town

Senior Pilot

Gosh why should this ever happen? Surely someone would.bw aware prior to push back? Even noticed! . Sounds like total incompetence.

I very much doubt this happened in push back. It’s almost certainly a malfunction or error handling the air bridge.

Could be but I think we need to know exactly what moved, when and why before coming to any judgement.

Self levelling mechanism failure perhaps.

It’s worth noting no BA staff would have been involved. After the plane is emptied of people (inc flight and cabin crew) it is moved to a remote stand for the day and then brought back in time for the evening return flight. Only local ground crew would have been involved.

I think someone thought: surely someone has checked it and nobody did.

From a pushback truck you can't see that bridge/door, you can't really see it from the cockpit. Someone screwed up for sure, but it is easier than you think.

"Doors to manual, sorry - manhandle"!:ugh:

Jack

Unless you are going to wind open the side window(s) and lean out :ooh: you can’t see the door at all from the Flight deck, but you would have an EICAS message if it was open and can also check the dedicated Doors page on the EICAS display…

In any event for all we know (well allI know) so far this may not have been caused by an attempt at pushing back with the door still open, as has been mentioned upthread other options are possibilities….

The damage is consistent with the floor of the jetbridge pushing the door upwards, there are shear bolts in the door to hinge attachment just for this eventuality to prevent even greater damage at the hinge to fuselage attachment . There are three ways this could have happened:

• Heavy cargo was offloaded from the rear compartment, causing the nose to settle, with the door pressing on the jetbridge. Normally this should be avoided by a sensor shoe placed under the door which moves the jetbridge down, but if it was forgotten or incorrectly placed, this is the result (been there, seen that, though luckily it was not me who did it)
• During bridge positioning, the operator moved the joystick the wrong way, moving the bridge up (rather likely).
• During bridge positioning, due to some malfunction the bridge moved upwards unexpectedly (very unlikely).

The solid roof of the jetbridge does not extend to the door top due to the curvature of the fuselage, and the extendable rain cover would not do such damage. Pushback would put sideways load on the door, and the solid sides of jetbridges at CPT do not extend that far, it would be the flexible rain cover catching the side and ripping before the door fails.

Phew. When I first read the title I thought it said door lost at Compton VOR.

Rumour has it that it was being towed off the stand with no crew or passengers, but the tow team at Capetown (CPT, FACT) didn’t notice that the jetty was still attached and it didn’t want to let go of the door...

I too thought there had been a door lost in the London TMA, as, I expect, the great majority of the readership did.
I still have no idea where it actually occurred though.,

I really don't understand what all the fuss is. CPT is the official IATA code for Cape Town International Airport.

All the ramps of the major airports (that I have seen and worked on) have the "parking spot" of each airbridge wheel assy painted on the tarmac. For certain because it is intended to be parked there (obviously for safe aircraft movement onto and off the stand). Can't vouch, if and where it may be part of pushback SOPs for the tug driver to visually cornfirm before starting to push.

The two BA morning arrivals into Cape Town remain on the ground all day before departing in the evening. After disembarkation they are moved to remote stands. The groundcrew commenced pushback to remote without noticing that the airbridge was still attached to the aircraft (How you might ask?)

TIA - This is Africa

IATA codes are not much used in Row 0.

Perhaps the confusion arose from the identity of the OP. :O

When in actually in row 0 yep, but rosters, allowance statements, etc certainly used to be in IATA so you had to be bilingual :8

(Stands by for the old chestnut about people bidding for a Christmas trip to LOS……)…


You might be onto something with that….

You must be one of the most prolific posters on PPRuNe Dave. (Sometimes I wonder if you're ever off your keyboard). Your posts are often valid. However, on this occasion you're hopelessly wrong. My rosters throughout my flying career used IATA codes.

Fair enough. Come to think of it, I've probably read thousands of tech logs in my time, all showing the sector as IATA codes. I stand corrected. :\