2009-08 · NASA ASRS report 848627
A MD-80's cockpit door opened during takeoff and became wedged in the ceiling. Unable to close the door; the Captain elected to continue the short flight to the destination and ordered all crew and passengers to remain seated for security reasons.
Right after takeoff; the cockpit door flew open and actually went beyond the metal stop. The First Officer was flying the aircraft. I was aware of the new procedures in our manual. I had to make a command decision during this event because when I looked back and saw the door past the metal stop I knew the Flight Attendant would never be able to close the door. Our flight was only a 30 minute flight to the scheduled destination; so I elected to get up out of my seat when it was safe to do so and headed back to the cockpit door. I could see there was no way the door could possibly be closed so I called the #1 Flight Attendant and told her all the flight attendants were not to get up from their seats during the entire 30 minute flight; to stay seated and ensure no passengers would get up from their seats so as to protect the doorway to the cockpit from passenger intrusion. This was a very busy flight since it was a very quick up and down flight and the workload was intense in the cockpit. I made a decision not to put a cart out in the forward cabin since we were going to descend in about 10 minutes. But later on the ground when I debriefed the flight attendants; I told them if the flight was longer I would have elected to have them put a cart out to protect the cockpit more. I also debriefed the crew and told the First Officer of the new security procedures in our manual and told the flight attendants to review their manuals for a possible change since ours had changed significantly; and always keep the security of the cockpit as a priority in the back of their minds. We wrote up the door in our logbook after landing and talking to the maintenance folks and briefed the oncoming Captain as well.
On takeoff the cockpit door came open with no cockpit indication that the door was not secure. The top of the door wedged into the ceiling panel hardware such that it could not be closed in flight. We flew with the cockpit door fully open. Maintenance eventually got the door back in place.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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