The DC-10 is jet airliner manufactured by McDonnel Douglas. It featured an unusual three-engine design, with two turbofan engines mounting on the underwing pylons and the third at the base of the vertical stabilizer.
Also unusual is the DC-10’s outwardly opening cargo door. Most planes have their cargo doors swinging inwardly to utilize the pressure difference between the thin atmospheric air at altitude and the pressurized fuselage to keep the cargo door solidly in place. However, McDonnel Douglas implemented an outwardly swinging door to allow the cargo bay to be filled completely, as an outwardly swinging door does not require any interior clearance to open.
Even among aircraft with outwardly open doors, the DC-10 was unique: previous aircraft …show more content…
While McDonnel Douglas should have been more rigorous in their standards for previously untested locking system, if tests were conducted properly – as it appears they were – and the cargo door fault was, over the course of a legitimate and rigorous investigation, unable to be replicated, then I cannot blame McDonnel Douglas for overseeing that fault. I believe McDonnel Douglas is especially innocent when it is taken into consideration that the faultiness of the locking mechanism alone did not cause the accident, but that a ground crew forced the improperly locked door closed as well.
I also see no fault in the work of the crew or the ground crew. The crew did an admirable job managing the incident and safely bringing the passengers back to Detroit. The ground crew, while indirectly a cause of the accident, deserves no blame as they simply followed their training; if they were told that the actuator stopping is indicative of a full rotation locking the door, they should not be expected to think that a fault might have occurred. If they did not expect a fault, it is not unreasonable to force what might just have been a poorly-balanced door
Also unusual is the DC-10’s outwardly opening cargo door. Most planes have their cargo doors swinging inwardly to utilize the pressure difference between the thin atmospheric air at altitude and the pressurized fuselage to keep the cargo door solidly in place. However, McDonnel Douglas implemented an outwardly swinging door to allow the cargo bay to be filled completely, as an outwardly swinging door does not require any interior clearance to open.
Even among aircraft with outwardly open doors, the DC-10 was unique: previous aircraft …show more content…
While McDonnel Douglas should have been more rigorous in their standards for previously untested locking system, if tests were conducted properly – as it appears they were – and the cargo door fault was, over the course of a legitimate and rigorous investigation, unable to be replicated, then I cannot blame McDonnel Douglas for overseeing that fault. I believe McDonnel Douglas is especially innocent when it is taken into consideration that the faultiness of the locking mechanism alone did not cause the accident, but that a ground crew forced the improperly locked door closed as well.
I also see no fault in the work of the crew or the ground crew. The crew did an admirable job managing the incident and safely bringing the passengers back to Detroit. The ground crew, while indirectly a cause of the accident, deserves no blame as they simply followed their training; if they were told that the actuator stopping is indicative of a full rotation locking the door, they should not be expected to think that a fault might have occurred. If they did not expect a fault, it is not unreasonable to force what might just have been a poorly-balanced door