April 25, 200620 yr I think there is a miscommunication between all of us in the thread. What I was referring to was only the passenger door which I know a lot more about then the cargo doors that I haven't researched yet.I haven't read throught the NTSB report to the cargo door that you are referring too but I believe there might have been a small crack or twist in the door area and the slipstream combined with the pressurization might have blown it out. This is a little different then the passenger trying to open the door. Unless really hyped up on drugs or a muscle man they are 99.9% not going to be able to force the door open during flight. Chris Miller
April 25, 200620 yr Probably no cracks and such. As a test, Boeing took another 747 on the ground, locked the cargo door and then engaged the motors to see if the door would still open. And it did much to their horror.Its a similar thing to the BAC1-11 blow out accident.In most aircraft, the cockpit windows are bolted into place from the inside. In other words, the plug design. On the 1-11, they were bolted on from the -outside-.An engineer used a size of bolt that was slightly too small. The result, the window blew out in flight and sucked the captain half-way out the window at about 18,000ft. He was pinned in place by his legs being stuck on the yoke and soon after by the flight attendants holding onto his legs.He survived though and the FO managed to land the aircraft.
April 26, 200620 yr Author Actually, common safety standards between aircraft mfgs is a great thing. Especially in terms of predictable behavior on mechanical safety parts like doors. Thats NOT a competitive area in my book. There should be close cooperation in these kinds of areas I thinkEric AND
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