Three European airlines have protested an AD they say will prevent their pilots from having a decent in-flight nap. On Oct. 8, the FAA issued a final rule for the AD that will require flight deck seats on most Boeing 787s to be modified to limit the amount they can recline. The agency says that in some circumstances, a pilot could be hit in the head with a flight deck door decompression panel if the flight deck suddenly decompresses. The panel is a section of door designed to prevent structural damage by letting loose if the pressure differential between the cabin and the flight deck exceeds one PSI.
Seriously though, if the panel can be propelled with enough force to possibly kill a flight crew member, what other damage could it do to flight instruments or maybe even the windows? Perhaps the solution is to hinge the panel or some other means to limit its travel in the (rare) case that it is dislodged.
Here is a wonderful idea around the AD. Install correct rest facilities for your crew and staff the crew correctly so that pilots get the rest required in accordance with current crew fatigue studies.
Another Boeing bean-counter approach. Fix the damn door instead of Rube Goldberg-ing the cockpit. Total disregard for pilots…like the original -100 747 with no room for the captains flight bag. Ridiculous.
Does anyone reading this actually understand the geometry of the door and the panel, and how the panel moves under air pressure?
And space in the 787 flight deck.
I can’t believe the panel flies off the door as is inferred, but it may well be hinged at bottom so its upper edge will fall on pilot seat.
And why only left pilot seat?
(I’ve never seen the 787 flight deck, have flown in both jumpseats in B767 but my focus was forward not on door. (Centre aft jumpseat to see instruments during flight test, foward left jumpseat when riding with colleagues - incredible visibility out side window, over Rockies in sunshine.)
