Fly The Airplane

Fly personal airplanes long enough and youll eventually have to deal with an open door or window. Usually its a cabin entry door that someone forgot to fully latch. Usually. Sometimes its a baggage door, and there goes your luggage, sliding down the runway at 70 knots. The thing is, inadvertent door or window openings typically occur at or shortly after lifting off from a runway, because thats when the changes in air pressure in and outside the airplane tend to find any weak spots.

Editorial Staff

Sunday, June 24, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Inadvertent door or window openings are common in personal airplanes, usually occurring at or shortly after takeoff due to pressure changes or incomplete latching, but rarely affect the aircraft's handling characteristics.
The primary danger in such events stems from the pilot's reaction and potential distraction, which can lead to critical errors like reducing power or losing airspeed, as demonstrated by a fatal accident where an open baggage door led to a stall.
Pilots should treat an open door as an inconvenience rather than an emergency, maintaining normal flight procedures, airspeed, and altitude to safely land the aircraft without deviating from standard operations.

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Fly personal airplanes long enough and you’ll eventually have to deal with an open door or window. Usually it’s a cabin entry door that someone forgot to fully latch. Usually. Sometimes it’s a baggage door, and there goes your luggage, sliding down the runway at 70 knots. The thing is, inadvertent door or window openings typically occur at or shortly after lifting off from a runway, because that’s when the changes in air pressure in and outside the airplane tend to find any weak spots.

As I’ve written, this happened to me a little over a year ago. I was departing full-length from a 9000-foot-long runway. As the airplane accelerated on the takeoff roll, it was noisier than I remembered. I noted the difference, but continued the takeoff. Within seconds of the mains leaving the runway, my Debonair’s cabin-entry popped open. With something like 7500 feet of runway remaining, the decision was easy: Land. Which is what I did, clearing the runway at the same taxiway I used when landing 30 minutes earlier. It was my fault—for some reason, I didn’t fully latch the door when settling in and failed to check it in the run-up area.