B737 MAX 8 Flight Attendants reported that aircraft door was not properly opened by gate agent upon arrival. Door caught on the framing with girt bar coming off. Maintenance reattached the girt bar and passengers deplaned.
Synopsis
B737 MAX 8 Flight Attendants reported that aircraft door was not properly opened by gate agent upon arrival. Door caught on the framing with girt bar coming off. Maintenance reattached the girt bar and passengers deplaned.
Narrative
At gate arrival in ZZZ the seat belt sign was turned off. FA A unbuckled from her jumpseat; put the lights to full bright; and made the PA flight attendants verify and disarm doors; standby for all call." I began my disarming procedures at the FWD service door; starting with monitor and challenge. I disengaged the girt bar from the girt bar brackets and placed the girt bar into the slide container hooks. I then verified that the white plastic stops were placed on the outside of the slide container hooks and then removed the red warning flag and attached it above the viewing window. I then visually and verbally cross checked the fwd entry door and FA A visually and verbally cross checked my fwd service door was properly disarm. FA A initiated the all call and said "fwd service door fwd entry door verified and disarmed." FA B responded with "Aft Entry Aft Service Door verified and disarmed." FA A hung up the phone and waited for the agent to knock on the viewing window. The agent knocked on the viewing window and FA A gave the thumbs up signal it was okay to open the door. FA A backed up from the FWD entry door as the articulation of the door comes inward and then turns to be pulled outward. As the agent began to open the door; the door did not properly come inward and the agent began turning the door. We heard the left outer part of the girt bar hit the door frame and started clicking to which FA A and I both shouted "STOP STOP STOP" the agent poked her head through the crack of how the door was open and said "I can hear you." FA A and I stayed back from the door and the agent push the door back inward to which the girt bar on the left hand said popped out of the slide bracket. I immediately notified the Captain as he opened up the flight deck door and explained what occurred. The Captain called for maintenance to come out and assess the door. The agent proceeded back up the jet bridge and was no longer in sight from the viewing window. Catering arrived at the fwd service door to open and we had the FO tell them to not open the door because of what has just occurred. The slide at this point had not dropped at all or deployed. Maintenance came out and verified the slide had not begun to drop as well and slowly opened the door back up and reattached the girt bar once the door was fully opened and the gust lock was engaged. Maintenance notified FA A it was clear to begin the deplaning process. The agent was not on the jet bridge still at this time and the deplaning process began. Once all passengers were off the aircraft; all FA's began their post flight safety checks verifying that the lavatories were empty; nothing in the overhead bins; and the FA A did a final walk through to the aft to verify the aft entry and service door were disarmed properly and the aft lavatories were empty and no one else was on the plane. Maintenance asked if we were coming off the plane to which we said "yes it is a crew swap." Maintenance advised us they needed to close the door and begin their procedures for the door. As we exited the aircraft; I saw the next crew and told them what was going on and explained to them that maintenance was closing the door and doing their procedures to ensure the door and slide are operable. As I was explaining this; the agent who was responsible for opening the door and left it unattended during the issue used a foul word and was shouting to the next crew as they were scanning on that "he's lying that I broke the door" "he doesn't know what he is talking about" and continued to raise her voice about the incident. I never transpired the issue into full context; I was advising the next crew of what was currently going on and letting them know of the situation that had occurred. I walked away; did not engage with the agent in any verbiage and walked with my entire crew."
Second reporter narrative
Upon arriving at the gate; I turned cabin lights to bright and made the arrival PA for flight attendants to verify and disarm doors. I disarmed my door; visually confirmed the girt bar was locked in the disarm position with the red plastic pieces secured in place in both brackets. I then turned to the FA C who had disarmed his door. We visually and audibly verified each other's doors were disarmed. I then made an all-call and confirmed that the forward entry and forward service doors were verified and disarmed. FA B then verified that the aft entry and aft service doors were verified and disarmed. When the gate agent knocked on the door; I gave her the thumbs up sign. When the gate agent opened the door; the door was not properly opened (the door was not swung wide enough to properly clear the door frame) and it caught on the framing of the door. The FA C and I heard the clicking of the girt bar coming off because it was stuck on a bracket in the door framing and we both started shouting 'stop; stop stop!' to the gate agent. The gate agent said that she could hear us; and then she let go. At this point the Captain comes out; and the FA C tells the Captain about the door situation; the gate agent then slams the door back in; but the door did not fully close. A deadheading Captain was sitting in the first row of business class and audibly witnessed the event. A few minutes later; maintenance comes to the gate and starts checking the door and we could hear maintenance say that the slide had not fallen; it's good to go; the door could be opened. Maintenance then opened the door and maintenance re-attached the girt bar. Maintenance opened the door and said everything was OK and to let everyone deplane.After all passengers had deplaned; I walked through the plane performing my security checks; verifying that the lavatories; bins; seats; galleys and front closet were empty of all passengers and belongings; and the doors were all disarmed.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.