Originally Posted by
narvik
Wait, so they couldn't open the doors?
What happened to the poor guy/gal with the seizures resulting in the diversion in the first place?
That doesn't sound right.
They could open the door they couldn’t get it to close. A minor requirement for departing from foreign airports these days!
I should also point out that the customs non sense didn’t apply to the emergency passenger. They deplaned them promptly and got them assistance right away! Why couldn’t a similar courtesy have been applied to passengers? When is enough, enough? 3 hours? 6 hours? Evidently not 12 hours!
Originally Posted by
jgsx
The latches were designed and certified to be fully operational at -40.
Good to hear a tech chime in with their experience on these latches! I thought they would be designed for cool weather but didn’t think for weather this cold! That being said -30 is cutting it awfully close to the limit and given some unknown extenuating circumstances it could still malfunction. To say UA was being cheap and skimping on maintenance when the environment may have been the culprit is just wrong!
-James
Originally Posted by
prestonh
so when they are cruising at FL 35 and the air temp is -30-40C the latches are OK?
You are assuming the latch and seal mechanism are exposed to those conditions. I suspect they are not and remain heated to the cabin temperature although I’ll let the tech chime in with details here.
-James