What happened
A flight attendant sustained injuries after falling from an aircraft during the process of opening the left number 5 (L5) exit door. The incident occurred while the flight attendant was assisting a company ground person who was positioned on the exterior boarding step.
At the time of the event, the boarding step was not fully aligned against the aircraft fuselage; instead, it was positioned approximately one foot away from the airframe. When the L5 door was opened, the flight attendant fell through the open doorway and landed on the ground approximately 20 feet below.
Company procedures mandate that hand signal communication be used between personnel inside and outside the aircraft during door operations. However, the investigation revealed that radio communications were being utilized instead. The ground person was unable to activate the door mechanism and requested assistance from a company representative. When the representative also could not open the door, they called upon the nearby flight attendant for help.
The investigation
The investigation determined that the boarding steps had initially been positioned fully against the aircraft. However, they were pulled away from the fuselage when the door failed to clear the handrails of the boarding step. This misalignment created a hazardous gap between the aircraft and the ground equipment.
Contributing factors included the physical design of the aircraft and the ground equipment. The airframe features a distinct curvature at the L5 door location, while the boarding step is square-shaped. These geometric differences likely contributed to the door catching on the handrails, causing the step to be pulled away from the aircraft during the attempted opening.
Findings
The primary cause of the fall was the gap between the boarding step and the aircraft fuselage at the time the door was opened. This gap was created because the square-shaped boarding step could not properly clear the curved airframe at the L5 door location, causing the step to be pulled away from the aircraft.
Additionally, the use of radio communications instead of the required hand signals may have contributed to the lack of situational awareness regarding the position of the boarding step relative to the aircraft. The flight attendant was unaware that the step had moved away from the fuselage before opening the door.