Originally Posted by
AC681
That's the forward cargo hold, otherwise known as compartment 3. Accessable from both outside the aircraft and in the cabin. It has both a smoke detector as well as a fire suppression system.
Thank-you. I would have guessed at something like that, and it's very nice to hear a full explanation.
We flew four legs of DH4 this past week. On one leg, the SD added a passenger's large bag to that compartment, as all of the overhead bin space was taken and the bag didn't fit elsewhere.
EDIT: It is possible that this PAX may have been off-duty crew.
On another leg, a PAX had an oddball sized package containing a delicate musical instrument of some kind. Maybe 10"x12"x 48" or so in size/shape. Somehow they had made it onto the DH4 with that package, but couldn't stow it anywhere. The regular, smaller closet opposite the W/C didn't have remaining space (of the right shape) for it. So we watched with curiosity to see if the SD would offer the much larger cargo closet. Nope. He had to check it for pick-up at the destination.
EDIT: Oddly, we boarded first, and did not see any PAX have their bags stowed in the regular closet.. so it must have been full already with the crew's bags, or perhaps emergency items. The SD did not move any of those to the larger cargo closet to make space for the musical instrument package.