Passenger claims Emirates A380 door opened in flight

[sn26567]

Strange incident on an Emirates A380 (A6-EDT) flying route EK384 from Bangkok to Hong Kong: according to The Daily Mail (not the most reliable source), a passenger holding a pilot licence claimed that a cabin door popped like a bomb going off and a gap opened in that door in flight, while the aircraft was at FL270 about 2 hours into the flight.

Emirates recognised that a whistling noise came from one of the cabin doors during the descent towards Hong Kong. The crew decided to continue the flight and the aircraft landed safely in Hong Kong.

A picture shows blankets and pillows stuffed at the bottom of the door.

See report in The Aviation Herald: http://www.avherald.com/h?article=45dcf ... um=twitter

Report from an Australian television channel with the picture of the door: http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/emer ... 6579347708

[BigJets]

Once again the press loves to exaggerate everything.

What happened is what's called a "slow decompression". The so-called "explosion" is a loud bang, pretty much like the opening of a coke bottle but 1000 times louder, followed by a very deafening and loud whistling sound.

The reaction of the Flight Attendant is a normal one because it can be very scary when it occurs and you don't really know if the door is safe or not so warning people that the door "may" blow and keeping everyone away is a normal reaction. Typically Airbus doors open inwards first before going out. Screaming it over the intercom? I doubt it. She hid under her chair??? How do you hide under a jump seat?

Since it seems the gap was only a few centimeters, the crew decided to use wet blankets to cover the hole, which usually works if the hole is not too big. They may have trouble opening the door afterwards since everything will freeze so they would consider the possibility of the door being inoperative should an evacuation be necessary but it is a simple and very effective way to deal with the problem. This is not the first time that such an incident has happened on an aircraft.

In the articles it seems people are shocked that the crew decided to continue to Hong Kong instead of landing somewhere else. They forget to mention that the flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong is only a 2h30 min. flight and that the incident happened after 2 hours of flight. The fact that the aircraft was at 27.000feet may indicate that the descent to HK already began so it is normal that the crew continues to Hong Kong. Even if the flight was further away from it's destination, the crew would probably have seen that the cabin pressure was stable enough to continue it's flight.

[Biggles71]

This is ONLY a door seal, which wasn't 100% tight. Talking max a few millimetres (not cm). Putting some wet blankets is an old technique which normally works fine.

Absolutely a NON-EVENT and not worth anymore words!

[cnc]

Absolutely a NON-EVENT and not worth anymore words!

very true but as about 99% of the people have no idea about aviation i can understand this event is impressive and scary

[bruteboeing]

vaseline also solves the problem sometimes. They use it alot before test flights after a heavy maintenance

[JAF737]

vaseline also solves the problem sometimes.

You should have worded your phrase differently )))

But yeah, that's a big deal for really nothing. I wonder how the view of the atmosphere at 27.000ft was though

[quixoticguide]

"An Airbus spokesman said: "It is not possible for a cabin door to open on an A380 or on any aircraft whilst in flight, as doors open inwards and have locking mechanisms."

[bruteboeing]

And so it is. It's called plug doors. The doors are bigger then the fuselage and get pushed in the opening by the prezurization. Try to open one in flight ... won't be easy

as said before, this was not worth mentioning... piece of piss

[smokejumper]

This is ONLY a door seal, which wasn't 100% tight. Talking max a few millimetres (not cm). Putting some wet blankets is an old technique which normally works fine.

Absolutely a NON-EVENT and not worth anymore words!

A NON-EVENT to an informed person (or aviation expert), but to a non-informed passenger who paid for a safe, uneventful and comfortable flight, it can be frightening. Most passengers do not realize how doors open inward and pressure on them helps keep them closed.

I remember a flight I was on in which an engine tore loose from the plane; the noise and vibration ..... well, it was not considered an NON-EVENT.

[earthman]

The oxygen masks did not even drop. If they had dropped, the Daily Mail would have reported that the plane landed while being on fire and with only one wing remaining.