Posted on 01/09/2024 8:51:35 PM PST by Red Badger
Federal investigators said that Boeing didn’t make pilots aware that when a plane rapidly depressurizes, the cockpit door will fly open
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The cockpit door aboard last week’s troubled Alaska Airlines flight surprised the flight crew by swinging open seconds after the fuselage suffered a potentially catastrophic rupture, according to the chair of the federal agency investigating the incident.
National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said during a news briefing Monday that the cockpit doors flew open immediately after the paneled-over exit door popped off of the fuselage. A flight attendant had to try three times to get it to close again, Homendy said.
“The cockpit doors flew open immediately and at this point the flight attendant in the forward portion of the aircraft was standing. The cockpit door flew open, hit the lavatory door,” Homendy said. “The lavatory door got stuck. She did attempt to shut the door three times, it eventually shut but it did blow open during the explosive decompression.”
Homendy’s revelation echoes criticism heaped on Boeing during earlier probes of another in the 737 MAX line of planes, the MAX 8, in which pilots said they were not properly trained on a flight control system on board the plane that was implicated in two deadly crashes overseas. In 2020, pilots were required to undergo new simulator training and training for erroneous angle of attack sensor malfunctions as part of the plan to put the 737 MAX back into service.
“It’s another round of Boeing not telling pilots about an airplane detail, which erodes the trust relationship and more importantly it narrows the safety margin.” said Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents pilots from American Airlines.
Homendy said that Boeing would make changes to its MAX 9 manual to make clear that the doors are designed to open.
In June, the FAA announced it will require a secondary barrier between the passenger cabin and cockpit of new commercial planes that are manufactured starting in the summer of 2025.
Oriana Pawlyk contributed to this report.
AVIATION PING!.............................
If God had meant for me to fly ... He wouldn’t have let me read articles like this one.
I haven’t flown since a few months before 9-11................
It was experiencing a landing on my 6th jet and plane flight that surprised me by not being as smooth as I expected when I realized that it was the first landing I had ever experienced.
I have flown three times in my life. In 1965 (age 10), 1982 and 2001 about three months after 9-11.
That last flight wasn’t too bad but definitely had some added weirdness due to 9-11.
I won’t totally rule out flying again buuuuut it will probably have to be very important with no other viable options.
LOL
Were you pulling at your vest and feeling some panic at not finding what you were grabbing for? :)
LOL, it wasn’t that bad, I thought it seemed bumpier than it should be but I asked a couple of passengers and they didn’t think much of it.
It was strange for me though when I realized that little factoid about my first landing being so late in my flying experiences.
Heh, good thing you weren’t on that Alaska flight.
You might have reacted to that open door in an entirely inappropriate way!
How about the cockpit is capable of maintaining its own, separate pressurization so the pilots don’t have to do their best impression of Darth Vader while landing a crippled plane?
CC
Too bad but Boing has pushed the design too far for too long. It is a low to the ground airplane and a stretched fuselage makes it more prone to tail strikes. So it needs higher landing speeds. Just one not good at all factor. All good things come to an end.
1991
The truth is that I preferred open doors on planes and helicopters, commercial flights made me feel boxed in and without any control.
From what I hear about current commercial flying conditions the claustrophobia would be nasty for me, as far as that door business, I have always liked collecting experiences and would have liked to have had that one since it turned out OK.
When my commercial flight lost an engine over the Atlantic going to Europe I had that fun feeling of possible adventure.
Ummm. I thought the cockpit doors were supposed to be locked during flight, courtesy of our mooslim friends after 9-11. Are they saying the locks didn’t work? That’s pretty comforting, no?
No, it was designed to open in case of loss of cabin pressure. They just didn’t tell the pilots or put it in the manual. Now it’s a security flaw......................................
That same software was used for 18 months in Europe, North America, Aus-NZ, Japan, and the Persian Gulf.
Not one incident report was filed in those countries in regard to the software after more than 60,000 flights.
The two fatal crashes involved four Muslim pilots flying for two lesser developed countries.
Airlines build their own manuals and train a majority of their own pilots. The do this based on OEM supplied data. MCAS was covered in the 2017 Boeing manual.
http://www.b737.org.uk/mcas.htm#techdes
Media lie for Yuan
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