Airline & Flying Experiences

[jackvs1]

Well today I was taking a flight of our nation's capital to beautiful Charleston, SC. Our plane boarded on time and even took off on time. Everything was going good, so far!!!

As we were ascending I heard a sound of air that just was not normal. I fly quite often so you get familiar with some of the operations. I also noticed the pilot would rev the engines then seconds later de would decelerate. Then the cabin bell rang and the flight attendant picked up the phone; the expression on her face was telling. A minute later the pilot came on and said we had to return to the airport as an exterior door was left open. This was 15 minutes into the flight. I thing my stomach & heart were in my throat.

Well we turned around and 20 minutes later we were safe on the ground. Maintenance came, shut the door and signed off on everything. I would have thought that a cockpit warning sign would let the pilot know these things before the plane took off. Oh well and my appreciation to the pilots who got us back safely and finally to Charleston.

 

[steveno]

there should have been a warning light in the cockpit that should have lit up. I have always been a bit skeptical sometimes about airline maintenance procedures

 

[zzzippper]

My experience is all with military aircraft, mostly tactical. Those do not have door open warning lights. The pilot has enough to monitor and manage. The ground crew should have taken care of that. I wonder what indication he got that something was not right?

 

[joeintexas]

This reminds me of the story about the pilot talking on the intercom when a stewardess spills hot coffee in his lap. He yells into the microphone " Oh man!! Oh NO!!" After a couple of seconds he comes back on and announces, " Sorry about that, hot coffee was dumped in my lap, you should see the front of my pants". A voice from the back of the plane yells, "oh yeah, you should see the BACK of mine!!"

 

[Bkreutz]

My experience is all with military aircraft, mostly tactical. Those do not have door open warning lights. The pilot has enough to monitor and manage. The ground crew should have taken care of that. I wonder what indication he got that something was not right?

A call from the airport that there was luggage strewn all over the runway?

 

[V1 Rotate]

there should have been a warning light in the cockpit that should have lit up. I have always been a bit skeptical sometimes about airline maintenance procedures

On our airplane the sensor may not make contact, and show an open door when on the ground it shows shut, because as the airplane pressurizes, it expands and flexes, much like a garden hose when you turn the water on. The procedure is, if the airplane pressurizes normally, you can continue, since its probably the sensor. All doors into the pressurized part of the fuselage on transport category airplanes operate like big inside drain stoppers on the door opening hole. They can't be sucked or forced open out into the slipstream, the most it will get is cracked. Its not regarded as much of an emergency, since you get multiple alarms that the airplane won't pressurize, but of course most passengers get anxious over any mechanical issues that result in an air return. Bill S

 

[Chuck24]

Stuck holding over Kennedy for a couple of hours, asked the stewardess(oops, flight attendant) how much longer? Said not much, the fuel lights on

 

[steveno]

when I was getting ready to get out the in 1973 the air force started offering some OJT training with American companies. one of the companies was PANAM and it was a chance to work in their avionics shop. for 3 months I worked half days with the PANAM people and it was a chance to work on 727 , 707 and 747 airplanes. now I won't say that an unsafe airplane was ever allowed to take off but some of their priorities was just a bit different than the air force. if one of the airplanes had a vhf radio that wasn't working and the other one or two radios was working the airplane was going to leave on time. it would be fixed at another location when there was some down time. on an air force airplane it WILL be fixed or parts on order to fix it before you left the shop to go back to the barracks. it would take some high ranking people to sign off on the airplane before it was fixed.

 

[Absalom]

This thread made me remember this Far Side from way back.

 

[16thVACav]

About 30 years ago, when I was doing a lot of traveling, I was booked on a small airline flying out of Dayton OH to some other city in the Midwest. I was more than surprised when I walked through the gate and saw a small four passenger light aircraft. I was the only passenger.

As we began taxiing to the runway, a man came running after us, waving his arms. As the plane stopped, he shouted to the pilot "We haven't gassed it up yet!".

Other than that, it was a routine flight.