King Air Suicide

[Icebound]

This bonehead just went crazy and jumped out.

....l.

Claustrophobia is a wierd thing.

In the early 1960's, I was in a snowmobile (not a ski-doo, but something powered by a 300 hp Chrysler motor), Me and about a dozen people.

Two up front in the driver's and passenger's bucket seats, and about ten or so in the cabin in the back. The driver and passenger had doors on either side, but the only exit from the back cabin was a single door on the right side.

One of the very sane people in the back left decided that he had to get out RIGHT NOW... and he meant it... he stomped right over the rest of us in his way to the exit. Now in this case the driver had stopped as soon as the commotion started in back, so nobody got hurt when he flung himself out the door into the snow.

Now this guy was smart, competent at his job, and as sane as anybody I know.... except for those few moments, when he just HAD to get out of that vehicle, and nobody and nothing was going to stand in his way.

A few minutes in the snowbank, and then we let him sit right next to the door, and he was "okay" for the rest of the trip.

The scary thought is that 5 seconds after exit, this guy thought.... "Gee, I'm okay now, let's go back in"


...

[torquey401]

Enjoy

DFW08LA097

On April 10, 2008, approximately 0900 central daylight time, a Raytheon B200, N300FL, was substantially damaged during ground operations at Taylor Municipal Airport (T74), Taylor, Texas. The airplane was owned and operated by Alaro Inc.. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The flight was being conducted under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 without a flight plan. The commercial pilot, the sole occupant of the airplane, was not injured. However, a mechanic who was attempting to board the airplane was struck by the airplane's entry door and fatally injured. The flight had returned from a local post-maintenance flight check.

According to the pilot, the vertical speed indicator (VSI) had been replaced and a flight check was conducted on the airplane. During flight, the pilot heard a loud, high-pitched, "screaming" sound emanating from behind the instrument panel. The pilot returned to the airport and radioed the mechanic regarding the loud sound. When the pilot brought the airplane to a stop, the sound diminished. With engines idling, the mechanic opened the door of the airplane to troubleshoot the malfunction. Cabin pressure existed when the mechanic attempted to open the entry door and the door "blew" outward. The door struck the mechanic's head.

An inspector from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) examined the airplane with technical assistance from Hawker Beechcraft. The examination revealed that a vacuum line had separated from the vacuum controller at a T-fitting. The T-fitting was located in the area that the mechanic had worked in during installation of the VSI. The disconnected line disabled the entire vacuum system and the airplane's pressurization system safety valve is actuated by vacuum system pressure. According to the manufacturer's Pilot Operating Handbook (POH), the safety valve serves three purposes: to provide pressure relief in the event of malfunction of the normal outflow valve, to allow depressurization of the pressure vessel when the cabin pressure switch is moved to the "DUMP" position, and to keep the airplane unpressurized when it is on the ground when the left landing-gear safety (squat) switch is compressed. Prior to the mechanic opening the door, the pilot reported turning the environmental controls off which stopped the in-flow of cabin pressure. However, because the vacuum system could not drive the safety valve open, the airplane remained pressurized.

The POH states that inadvertent door opening is protected by the requirement to depress a release button adjacent to the door handle, making door operation a two-handed motion. The door is further protected by a differential-pressure-sensitive diaphragm incorporated into the release-button mechanism. In the presence of differential pressure, it will be increasingly difficult to actuate the release-button.

A review of Title 14 CFR Part 23 revealed that each external passenger or crew door must have a "means to lock and safeguard the door against inadvertent opening during flight by persons, by cargo, or as a result of mechanical failure." In addition, each door of the pressure vessel on a pressurized airplane must have a "means to lock and safeguard each external door, including cargo and service type doors, against inadvertent opening in flight, by persons, by cargo, or as a result of mechanical failure or failure of a single structural element, either during or after closure."

The door assembly was examined at the Hawker Beechcraft factory by the NTSB and FAA with the assistance of Hawker Beechcraft. In order to test the integrity of the diaphragm, 16 pounds per square inch (psi) differential pressure was applied. After 1 minute, the diaphragm leaked 0.05 psi, which is within the accepted tolerance of 2 psi for retaining pressure. The diaphragm was next tested across a range of zero to 6 inches of differential pressure to calculate the force required to initially and fully actuate the release button. With 0 psi, it would take 4 pounds to initially actuate and 6.5 pounds at fully actuate the release button mechanism. With 0.5 psi, it would take 8 pounds to initially actuate and 12 pounds to fully actuate the release-button mechanism. With 6 psi, it would take 37 pounds to initially actuate and 46 pounds to fully actuate the release-button mechanism. Despite signs of wear, the accident diaphragm's provided resistance similar to a new diaphragm. Testing confirmed that the airplane's door could be opened while the airplane was still pressurized, but that action would require more force to overcome the resistance.

The B200 has no means of alerting outside personnel that an airplane is sill pressurized while on the ground other than resistance against the release-button. Pilots can read cabin pressure on a gauge located on the throttle quadrant.

The current POH is "C6," dated December 2004. Step 9 of the "After Landing" checklist, states "Pressurization Differential......Verify 0." The POH the pilot operated with was revision "C" dated December 2000. Revision "C" direct pilots to check the pressure differential after landing. Federal Aviation Regulations do not require Part 91 operators to update the POH.

[HS-748 2A]

Didn't a pax bale one time years ago between the Island and YVR?

[niss]

We call them Boeing bombs.

[sakism]

Err.... Why would you dump the cabin when you don't have to?... If you just turn the cabin alt. up, the rate controller will keep everyone's ears from exploding. Within a couple minutes you should be able to be at a nice, sleepy 10,000ft.

???

10 000' is not that sleepy. At max. altitude a Beech 1900 holds a cabin altitude of 10 000' - just a normal day.

[rum-runner]

even a twotter with flaps 10 at 90kts, the door takes quite a bit to open.
jet.

I dont think it takes that much on the double otter..according to history all it takes is a Captain with a broom, crack the door, and let the co-jo have at 'er on the rudder pedals.

I think that one happened very close to this one.

[ettw]

Having lobbed a few things out of Twin Otters for SAR missions etc, I can tell you that its not easy to open that door in flight. I've always assumed that the Capt who went out with the broom was on an airstair door equiped model which would just pop open and down if you knocked it.

ETTW

[Siddley Hawker]

There was a lady pax bailed out of a Twotter a few years ago in California. I can't be arsed to Google it, but I seem to remember she had been suffering from depression.

[Finn47]

There were alarming signs of mental issues right before the free ride home, which he got as a personal favour, but I guess nobody expected him to lose control the way he did:

http://www.canada.com/news/RCMP+resume+ ... story.html

[SeptRepair]

Didn't a pax bale one time years ago between the Island and YVR?

Yes if i remember correctly it was during a prisoner run a guy managed to jump out over the straits. What i find ironic was he was under the supervison of a guard when it happened.

[swordfish]

Permit me to offer some clarification of the events of this incident. I have a friend who was in a 5T Dash 8 hearing what went on, on 126.7

The facts need to be confirmed:

The crew had started to depressurize the cabin by climbing it, not by dumping it, to try and get the guy to go to sleep or pass out.
The crew was on oxygen.
The passenger was going back and forward in the cabin, and refused to comply with the crew's instructions to sit down and fasten his seat belt.
The passenger did not exit through the emergency exit.
The passenger was banging or bashing on the door violently.
The passenger then made an attempt to read the instructions on the door as to how to open it, and obviously succeeded.

It is my conjecture that he wanted to get out of the aircraft without understanding the ramifications of his actions (claustrophobia?), and may have been pulled out by the door opening as the residual pressurization opened it...maybe he was hanging onto the door handle.

I currently fly a -200. The door handle lock has a diaphragm which has to be "pushed hard" to defeat the pressurization. In the words of the AFM...it becomes increasingly difficult to press with increasing cabin pressure. Haven't tried it, but the AFM does NOT say it has to be completely depressurized to open the door, nor does it say or imply that the pressurization of the cabin PREVENTS it from being opened.

Sliding the drawbolts horizontally would be easy, as it is on a Jetstream or KA or 99 once you get the handle in motion. The cabin pressure will do little to inhibit this action.

[Lost Lake]

Gee, I hope he wasn't the prick that stole $500 out of my room in YCB!!!

[bezerker]

Ha, all the experts about the all the pressure required to open the door.

Every year or so someone gets thrown on the ramp/bonked on the head opening a door on a King Air because the safety valve fails and the aircraft remains pressurized on the ground. It is obviously easy to open and anyone looking at the rollers that the bayonettes slide into could figure that out (good explanations by torquey401).

It make me wonder about all the other "expert" advise, written with uncompromising authority on other topics on this forum.

Anyway, for all those in favor of it being impossible to open a King Air door when pressurized (with the fantastic math to prove it), thanks for the good Saturday morning laugh.

[2milefinal]

I guess its up to MythBusters now

[glorifiedtaxidriver]

Didn't a pax bale one time years ago between the Island and YVR?

I believe that was between the Charlottes and Prince Rupert. But yes, almost took his escort with him too. It was a prisoner transfer.

[HS-748 2A]

Didn't a pax bale one time years ago between the Island and YVR?

I believe that was between the Charlottes and Prince Rupert. But yes, almost took his escort with him too. It was a prisoner transfer.

SeptRepair and Taxidriver, yes, that's the one I was thinking of. Was that a Twotter?

48

[C-FABH]

A09W0060: The Adlair Aviation Beech 200, registration C-GCYN, was en route Yellowknife to Cambridge Bay, on a medical charter, when one of the two passengers on board left their seat and became
disruptive. An emergency was declared and the cabin was depressurized in a effort to get the male passenger under control. The disruptive passenger subsequently opened the main cabin door and exited the
aircraft. The incident occurred approximately 114 NM southwest of Cambridge Bay, at FL230. The aircraft continued to Cambridge Bay with the cabin door open, and landed without further incident. The
male passenger is presumed deceased; the flight crew and the remaining passenger were uninjured. The Cambridge Bay detachment of the RCMP is investigating the occurrence.

[Rudy]

Many of us fly in areas that have serious social problems as well as some of the highest suicide rates in the world. I've often thought of what would happen if a passenger decided to get violent or wanted to take their own life on my aircraft. It's sad but desperation can cause good people to do just about anything.
With the ever increasing drug addiction problem in the north there may come a time when pilots won't want to fly here anymore for concern for their personal safety. Just like you wouldn't want to drive a city bus in south-central L.A.

[MUSKEG]

Had a fight happen on a DC 3 once with 20 unruly firefighters. We took the old girl up to 15 thou and in a few minutes we had a peaceful flight. Alcohol+ altitude= sleep. From climbing over the seats and beating each other with whatever they could find to drooling in 10 minutes. For a while there were 2 of us back there to try to calm things down but that wasn't happening so off to plan B. We were over the rocks at 10 thou so obviously 10 won't do it. We still chuckle about that.

[glorified bus driver]

Permit me to offer some clarification of the events of this incident. I have a friend who was in a 5T Dash 8 hearing what went on, on 126.7

The facts need to be confirmed:

The crew had started to depressurize the cabin by climbing it, not by dumping it, to try and get the guy to go to sleep or pass out.
The crew was on oxygen.
The passenger was going back and forward in the cabin, and refused to comply with the crew's instructions to sit down and fasten his seat belt.
The passenger did not exit through the emergency exit.
The passenger was banging or bashing on the door violently.
The passenger then made an attempt to read the instructions on the door as to how to open it, and obviously succeeded.

It is my conjecture that he wanted to get out of the aircraft without understanding the ramifications of his actions (claustrophobia?), and may have been pulled out by the door opening as the residual pressurization opened it...maybe he was hanging onto the door handle.

I currently fly a -200. The door handle lock has a diaphragm which has to be "pushed hard" to defeat the pressurization. In the words of the AFM...it becomes increasingly difficult to press with increasing cabin pressure. Haven't tried it, but the AFM does NOT say it has to be completely depressurized to open the door, nor does it say or imply that the pressurization of the cabin PREVENTS it from being opened.

Sliding the drawbolts horizontally would be easy, as it is on a Jetstream or KA or 99 once you get the handle in motion. The cabin pressure will do little to inhibit this action.

Right on swordfish I agree with you totally. And for all the folks seem to be stuck on this "safety bellow kick" it's been calculated and it only takes just under 300 lbs to overcome and open the door, which in my view can be done!

[YHZChick]

There was a lady pax bailed out of a Twotter a few years ago in California. I can't be arsed to Google it, but I seem to remember she had been suffering from depression.

I think you're thinking of this one....

This is the transcript of an extraordinary 911 call made by a mechanic of a private airline to the San Jose (Calif.) police comm center on Dec. 14, 2000. The dispatcher is Irene Donovan, and the caller is Ron Van Meir, a mechanic with Hewlett-Packard's Aviation Department, which operated the airline for the electronics company.

Dispatcher: San Jose police.

Caller: Yes, ma'am. This is Ron Van Meir with Hewlett-Packard's Aviation Department.

D: Uh-huh.

C: Um. I don't know how to do or who to really report this to. Um. But we lost a passenger in flight of our scheduled flight from Lincoln, California, to San Jose.

D: You lost a passenger?

C: They fell out of the airplane.

D: They what?

C: They fell. Well, they either . . . They fell out of the airplane.

D: Are you being funny?

C: No ma'am. No. I'm dead serious. OK. I mean . . . I'm one of the aircraft mechanics that work here, and I don't want to say it was suicide because I can't assume that. But we did lose a passenger in flight.

D: How did they get out of their airplane?

C: OK. Um. There's emergency exits, and she went out one of the emergency doors.

D: Where are you calling from now?

C: OK. The hangar here at 1210 Aviation Avenue. I know we have airport security, but I can't find one of their phone numbers so I started with 911. But I figured we got to get something going.

D: Where did this happen?

C: Um. It would have been out of Sacramento Executive Airport. Um. Probably 2 or 3 minutes into the flight.

D: Which left Sacramento when?

C: Um. I'd have to get one of the pilots. It would be shortly after 5:30. The aircraft arrived here at just before, a little after six.

D: And this is a private plane?

C: It's a company-owned airplane. It's a corporate aircraft.

D: And it landed at five after six.

C: Um. Yeah. Approximately 6 o'clock. Five after six.

D: And one of the passengers that was originally on it is no longer on it.

C: Yes ma'am.

D: How many passengers were on it?

C: Um. I'd have to look at the manifest. It was probably about five.

D: Where are they?

C: Um. I'm not sure yet. But I mean . . . the director of maintenance or the department manager was talking to all of them, and I've been talking --

D: They're all in the same place right now? Somebody's got them all confined? I mean, nobody's going home?

C: I don't know that. I can check. I'm talking to the one guy that's running the department, and I said ``you know, we need to notify somebody,'' and so he just told me to handle it so this is the first call that. (Several seconds of silence) See, and the two flight crew members weren't notified until after they landed.

D: How could they not see somebody or feel -- ?

C: This airplane is a Twin Otter. The door had came open. They had a indication, he went back there and closed the door.

D: Oh, it did come open while he was in flight?

C: The passengers that were there didn't tell the pilot until after they had landed.

D: They saw her jump?

C: Well, I don't want to say jumped. She left the airplane.

D: She leaves the airplane. They see her leave the airplane while it's in the air but they decide not to tell?

C: Ma'am. You'd have to talk to them. I haven't talked to them at all. From what the one pilot told me was she was there, the one guy saw that she was there, he reached out to grab her and -- she had -- you know. He couldn't.

D: All right. What's your name?

C: My name? Is Ron.

D: OK. Stay put and keep everybody there. Don't let anybody go home.

C: OK.

D: OK.

[Siddley Hawker]

Thanks YHZChick, that's the one.

[twnotter]

Assuming no mechanical malfunction with the door or pressurization system, I would be curious as to how the passenger was able to overcome the pressurization safety bellows built into the locking mechanism.

Every King Air 200 that I have worked on did not have a press bellows for the safety latch. It is purely mechanical. The King Air door only opens out, not in and then out as in 737.

[ez4u2say]

Fatal jump from plane ruled a suicide
Last Updated: Thursday, April 15, 2010 | 7:02 PM CT
CBC News
A coroner's inquest panel in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, has ruled that the death of Julian Tologanak, 20, who jumped from an airplane in mid-flight one year ago Thursday, was a suicide.

The six-member panel, which three days of witness testimony this week, also issued five recommendations toward preventing similar deaths in the future.

On April 15, 2009, Tologanak was on a charter flight home from Yellowknife to Cambridge Bay when he opened the twin-engine plane's door and leaped out from an altitude of about 7,000 metres above ground.

Tologanak's body has never been found. It is believed he jumped somewhere near Umingmaktok, about 180 kilometres away from the Cambridge Bay airport.

The panellists released their report on Tologanak's death late Thursday afternoon, hours after hearing final statements from lawyers and presiding coroner Garth Eggenberger.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/20 ... z0lDrTT0cj

[Tiger Moth]

The way I hear it, it was the main door. The flight was a medivac flight. The passenger/patient got unruly and very aggressive and the crew made an attempt to put him to sleep by depressurizing the machine and before he got around to his nap, he beat up the medical person and then went for the door.

And as to the aircraft questions, Max diff is 6.1 psi (I think, may be wrong), with the safety bypass set to 6.5psi on the outflow/safety valves. The door opens towards the outside of the aircraft, it is not a plug type door. Hinged on the bottom, 2 pins in front, 2 pins in back and 2 hooks on the top of the frame. There is a handle on the inside and a button that you have to press to turn it. This is the locking mechanism, no bellows system.