Baggage hatch falls off in-flight
Friday 27th March 2009, 2:29PM GMT.
AURIGNY is investigating after a baggage hatch on one of its aircraft fell into the sea en route to Guernsey.
The Trislander set off from Jersey on Tuesday at 7.56am on a scheduled flight.
Following the incident it immediately returned to Jersey, where passengers were transferred to another aircraft. No baggage was lost.
A spokesman for States-owned Aurigny said the part would be replaced at no cost – it has several spares.
The aircraft, which was built in 1975, will be back in service today. The incident had no effect on services other than the original GR 809.
It was unclear whether an incident such as this has occurred previously in the airline’s history or on any other Trislander.
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A trislander is an unpressurised aircraft, which was operating at a very low altitude. It makes no difference whether the aircraft was built in 1975 or 2005. The trislanders operated by Aurigny are maintained very well, and have operated succesfully for many years. On any airline there will be the occasional incident. Also, the airline might be States owned, but there really is no need to carry on stating this fact in every story concerning Aurigny. So are the buses. Do you say Island Coachways (operating States owned buses)? Aurigny operate an excellent airline in my opinion, and this incident will in no way disuade me from flying with them.
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OK Mark, I don’t agree with you. I think that when a plane flys then the doors should not fall off.
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This could have been a far different story had the hatch fallen off over land. Although I accept that Aurigny maintain their aircraft very well, the fact remains that this could have had tragic consequences had the hatch landed on anyone on the ground.
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Dumping metal in the sea is illegal. I’m outraged.
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It’s true that Aurigny have a good rep0utation for maintaining their aircraft.
The fact remains a door fell off the aircraft.
Hopefully cost cutting did not cause the door to fall off.
What other serious explanation can be put forward? After all door hinges are highly visible.
They must have been in a poor condition to just fall out oof the sky.
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Jackie
re your superb “Dumping metal in the sea is illegal. I’m outraged”.
Only snag is Ms Wheeler of Health and Safety fame will now have something else to grumble about.
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The Trislanders are good aircraft, but in 2005, a Rockhopper (as it was then) Trislander experienced a similar problem where it was en route to Guernsey from St. Breuic and the luggage hatch door at the back was forced inwards. That was hushed up…
http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources/Britten-Norman%20BN2A%20Mk%20III-1%20Trislander,%20G-LCOC%2001-07.pdf
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Jackie
I hardly think that you could really call this ‘dumping metal’ as the Aurigny didn’t exactly decide to make the door fall off.
I agree with Mark, this will not disuade me from flying with Aurigny because although there is a cause for concern when a door falls off, I am sure that the incident will be investigated. Many planes will have some incidents, quite a few more serious than this. These include crash landings on runways which do not disuade people from flying airlines such as BA which crash landed on the runway in Jan.
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