Passengers on a New York-bound Cathay Pacific Airways flight were lucky not to have been hit by an unhinged toilet door as they were wearing seat belts when the fixture fell during take-off, according to engineering experts who said the cause was likely loose screws.
The engineering experts on Wednesday shared their comments as the city’s flag carrier investigated the cause of the incident on flight 840 as it took off on a 16-hour journey on Monday evening.
“I believe the incident was due to loose screws, which the airline neglected to check,” said Lo Kok-keung, a retired veteran engineer from Polytechnic University.
“Luckily it happened during the take-off when passengers were all seated and no one was near the fallen door.”
The incident came to light thanks to images posted online that show a female flight attendant sitting in a cabin crew seat on the Airbus A350 and using her hand to secure the detached door.
The photos, believed to have been taken by passengers, were posted with a caption saying the incident happened three minutes after take-off.
The pictures show the toilet door had fallen into the hallway where passengers typically waited for their turn to use the lavatory. In another picture, the cabin crew can be seen trying to fix the door.
Lo said the chances of the aluminium-made door falling outward rather than inward were 50-50.
Despite being lightweight, the door was capable of causing some harm if it fell on passengers’ heads or torsos, he added.
“If a passenger was using the toilet and the door fell inward, I believe the passengers would suffer both physically and mentally. He or she might feel very awkward and disturbed,” he said.
Darryl Chan Chun-hoi, a former chairman of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers’ aircraft division, said he would not speculate on the accident’s cause, but said he believed the airline would check whether the door had been damaged or poorly maintained.
There was no protocol for handling fixtures falling during take-off, but the priority in such incidents was to keep the cabin safe, which the flight attendant had performed correctly, he said.
Both engineers said there was no need for passengers to worry about the incident.
“Anything that breaks is not nice to see,” Chan said. “But again, if you go to use a rental car, or if you go to a hotel or you go to a shopping centre, how many things are broken?”
