It's easy to miss this kind of thing (which someone at Paris CDG obviously did earlier today, allowing the aircraft to depart in this state), but I spotted it on my pre-departure headset check and latched it properly. Good job some of us actually really do bother to look at all the panels when we do a walkaround check eh?

In case you are wondering what is amiss, the left popper is out and if the other one comes undone, the panel would probably come open, potentially breaking free in the airflow and hitting the port elevator if it did so. It is located on the rear port side of an A320, just forward of, and below the level of the rear passenger door. To close it (in addition to jumping up since it is well above head height) you push the popper shut, to open it, you push on the lower button and the upper one pops out as you see in this picture. It's painted red so it is (allegedly) easy to spot when it is left unfastened (well that clearly doesn't work lol).

This is the same type of fastener which is on a number of panels on this and other aircraft, sometimes the latch on the inside doesn't fold back properly and that prevents the panel from closing, this is a common problem on the 737's headset/ground power socket when you come to close it, as the inner latch on the bottom popper falls down and stops you shutting it unless you hold it in place whilst you close the panel door. But in this case, someone has simply forgotten to pop the thing locked, or not pushed it home properly.

 

 

Edited March 8, 20206 yr by Chock

Aren't these panels designed to be in the airflow if they come open in flight? Meaning...that if they opened in flight, they are going to be streamlined into the wind.

On the CRJ they are. We have the comms panel not closed by the ground crew plenty of times and it's fine the entire flight. It's just really loud.

7 hours ago, ahsmatt7 said:

...comms panel not closed by the ground crew plenty of times and it's fine the entire flight. It's just really loud.

Can you not just turn the volume down, Matt? Ahem, sorry.. 

I'm not a real pilot, or an aerodynamicist, but I would say that the hinges on that A320 panel would need to be located on the front vertical side of that opening for the panel to be streamlined into wind..

Here's a thought: If a CRJ flies just fine with the comms panel open, think of the potential weight saving exercise on a whole fleet if the panel was removed..  

On 3/8/2020 at 4:45 AM, ahsmatt7 said:

Aren't these panels designed to be in the airflow if they come open in flight? Meaning...that if they opened in flight, they are going to be streamlined into the wind.

On the CRJ they are. We have the comms panel not closed by the ground crew plenty of times and it's fine the entire flight. It's just really loud.

Yes, offhand I think most of the panels on the aeroplanes I work on do have such an arrangement which would be held shut by the airflow, although I would think some of them might, in a few locations, potentially be pulled open by reduced pressure areas passing over them and I suspect that one above, being behind the wing's top surface might be one which could do that. In any case, Mark is quite right about that A320 panel, it opens downwards as evidenced by the fasteners on the top edge and the hinges on the bottom.

Some panels have a pretty strong retaining spring mechanism too, which means the fasteners might not actually necessarily need to be locked down, The one on the fuel panel cover is a good example of that, it has a kind of hinge which locks open , and if you didn't know any better, you'd think you were going to break it when you close it, because it requires quite a big shove to get it closed, I can remember myself and a SAS pilot who was doing a walkaround finding one left open and he didn't want to press it in case he broke it, but I had a good look at it and figured out that is what it took to shut it, so he said 'rather you than me' and I managed to close it lol.

Interestingly, the CRJ headset phono jack access panel serves a dual purpose on the CRJ, when you pop it open, that releases a spring loaded button a bit like the one on your fridge door which puts the light on when you open the door. On the CRJ, it activates the steering hydraulic bypass so there is no need to use a steering bypass pin on the landing gear when pushing it out. Pretty clever design.

On 3/9/2020 at 12:00 PM, Chock said:

Yes, offhand I think most of the panels on the aeroplanes I work on do have such an arrangement which would be held shut by the airflow, although I would think some of them might, in a few locations, potentially be pulled open by reduced pressure areas passing over them and I suspect that one above, being behind the wing's top surface might be one which could do that. In any case, Mark is quite right about that A320 panel, it opens downwards as evidenced by the fasteners on the top edge and the hinges on the bottom.

Some panels have a pretty strong retaining spring mechanism too, which means the fasteners might not actually necessarily need to be locked down, The one on the fuel panel cover is a good example of that, it has a kind of hinge which locks open , and if you didn't know any better, you'd think you were going to break it when you close it, because it requires quite a big shove to get it closed, I can remember myself and a SAS pilot who was doing a walkaround finding one left open and he didn't want to press it in case he broke it, but I had a good look at it and figured out that is what it took to shut it, so he said 'rather you than me' and I managed to close it lol.

Interestingly, the CRJ headset phono jack access panel serves a dual purpose on the CRJ, when you pop it open, that releases a spring loaded button a bit like the one on your fridge door which puts the light on when you open the door. On the CRJ, it activates the steering hydraulic bypass so there is no need to use a steering bypass pin on the landing gear when pushing it out. Pretty clever design.

That steering bypass is news to me to be honest. We have a nose wheel steering switch which we turn off when we are being pushed back. If that's the case, I wonder how we taxi the thing when that access door is open. 🤔

Yup. I have been toldit is that panel switch and that it is a cockpit switch by different people. Presumably one wouldn't  normally taxi with that panel open. But mybe the cockpit switch overrides the panel switch. Dunno.