opening doors in flight

[fuelevaporator]

allways interesting to compare procedures on different planes:
dc9 and b747 had procedure to open 2 cabin doors in flight as last resort.
fokker stated once "more than ventilation by ram air is never required".

would anybody consider same on airbus, not talking about fact that most cabin crew would rather die than to do it...?

[GlueBall]

In the B747, even when unpressurised in flight, it would require a lot of force just to crack the door open a few centimetres into the slipstream. Unpressurised, you would be able to open the cockpit hatch, which opens inward. When pressurised you wouldn't be able to open anything.

[Centaurus]

Many years ago Boeing warned of the danger of someone being sucked out of the rear entrance doors in an un-pressurised 737. Apparently the curvature of the fuselage created a significant pressure differential.

[mustafagander]

Glueball,

The Boeing doors move INWARDS a few cm first and that is used for severe smoke removal. By all reports quite effective. The guys who tested it in my mob reported no difficulty at all.

[matkat]

Well on the B747 the flight locks would have to be disarmed/disengaged if done and unpressurised I assume it's possible, pressurized it would be impossible.

[Bolty McBolt]

Well on the B747 the flight locks would have to be disarmed/disengaged if done and unpressurised I assume it's possible, pressurized it would be impossible.

Flight Locks 747 ? do tell??

[grease7]

Only the both upperdeck doors on the 744 are equipped with a flight lock actuator. This is to prevent the door handle being opened while a/c is in air mode (=flying)

[vs69]

On the jumbo I think the SOP for smoke is to crack the L4 door slightly so the gates have folded in and then tie the handle to stop it rotating further round, yes I couldn't believe it when I first heard it but there's a bit of string in the overhead locker in its own dedicated pouch.

As for the flight locks, yes the upper deck emergency exits have one each that locks the handle once the nose gear is off the deck.

[Storminnorm]

I find this fascinating.
Has anyone EVER had to open any cabin door for smoke clearance??
EVER???
You would have to have an awful lot of smoke in the cabin in order
to resort to opening any bl**dy door IMHO...

[TopBunk]

On the jumbo I think the SOP for smoke is to crack the L4 door slightly so the gates have folded in and then tie the handle to stop it rotating further round

It forms part of the SMOKE REMOVAL procedure, if necessary, when the source of the smoke or fumes persists or is severe and is in the cabin.

In this case you will have depressurised the aircraft having desended to as low as safe and reduced speed

If the smoke of fumes concentration is determined to be in the forward section of the cabin, Door1 or Door2 and a Door 4 or Door 5 is then opened

If the smoke of fumes concentration is determined to be in the aft section of the cabin, a Door 2 only is opened

Before opening any door it is put into manual mode!

It is secured in the 12 o'clock position

[glhcarl]

How to you overcome the thousands of pounds of pressure on the door, holding it against the pressure stops, to get it to crack open?

[muduckace]

I can easily see cracking those old boeing doors open enough to vent unpressurized, the first action of the door handle is to open vent panels on top and bottom. Talking about smoke, on the DC/MD it used to be easy to shove a plastic spoon in the door seal if one of the crew did not like cigarette smoke, it would completely evacuate cigarette smoke if done right. A new horse handler or a person hitching a ride as our customer would get wide in the eyes seeing a crack of daylight shine through, good fun.