3 ms·

With regards to the cargo door story - a door did blow out, but it was a passenger door, not a cargo door. Passenger doors are plug-fit (they're bigger than th

With regards to the cargo door story - a door did blow out, but it was a passenger door, not a cargo door. Passenger doors are plug-fit (they're bigger than the hole, and pressure holds them in place), so it's not really possible for a passenger door to blow out. Cargo doors are not plug fit, so a latching failure could cause a door to blow out. Everyone in the industry remembers the DC10 cargo door failures. I suspect the early rumours said a door had blown out, and as that's not really a possible failure mode for a passenger door, it was assumed it must have been a cargo door. Now, in this case a passenger door did blow out, but it wasn't a door failure. The fuselage some distance below a door failed, and split right up past the door. The partially unsupported door then blew out. But the door was peripheral to the story. Boeing could definitely had handled this much better, but it's not really surprising that in the absence of full facts the rumour mill got this one wrong.

inferiorhuman 7y ago
Cargo doors are not plug fit, so a latching failure could cause a door to blow out. Right. A cargo door failure could be simply user error. Everyone in the industry remembers the DC10 cargo door failures. And the 747 ones too hopefully (user error and poor design). The fuselage some distance below a door failed, and split right up past the door. The partially unsupported door then blew out. Right, the door failure was secondary. Boeing could definitely had handled this much better, but it's not really surprising that in the absence of full facts the rumour mill got this one wrong. Someone at Boeing obviously leaked part of the story (the door failed) and Gates ran with what information he was provided. The question remains: why only leak part of that story? Either failure will look bad to laypersons and both would be dismissed fairly quickly by people more familiar with airliners. Is the working theory that Boeing PR is simply that incompetent or short sighted?

inferiorhuman 7y ago

Cargo doors are not plug fit, so a latching failure could cause a door to blow out. Right. A cargo door failure could be simply user error. Everyone in the industry remembers the DC10 cargo door failures. And the 747 ones too hopefully (user error and poor design). The fuselage some distance below a door failed, and split right up past the door. The partially unsupported door then blew out. Right, the door failure was secondary. Boeing could definitely had handled this much better, but it's not really surprising that in the absence of full facts the rumour mill got this one wrong. Someone at Boeing obviously leaked part of the story (the door failed) and Gates ran with what information he was provided. The question remains: why only leak part of that story? Either failure will look bad to laypersons and both would be dismissed fairly quickly by people more familiar with airliners. Is the working theory that Boeing PR is simply that incompetent or short sighted?