A short video recently appeared online that begins with the solo pilot of a Cherokee performing a stall recovery and ends with the same pilot struggling to close the cabin door in flight as the plane, well, flies itself.
“Woo-hoo! Aww I love it!” the pilot is heard to exclaim during the stall procedure. But, as he loads up the wing and adds power during recovery, the camera shows the main cabin door popping open, accompanied by the unmistakable hiss of wind on the intercom circuit.
“Oh man. Cabin door just came open,” he says next, and begins tugging on the door handle. When that doesn’t work, he adds engine power and devotes his undivided attention to closing the uncooperative door. The plane begins an upward pitch oscillation and slight roll to the left before the video abruptly ends.
Participants on Reddit’s Aviation list were brimming with advice, from the classic, “Fly the plane,” to, “It’ll fly all day with the door open,” and, “!planes don’t crash because the door opened but because the pilot was too concentrated on closing it.”
Others held the pilot’s instructor(s) accountable, stating, “Two types of people in the world! trained and untrained,” or, “If he had the right training, it really shouldn’t be [a problem].” Still another shared, “I was trained (for Piper/Cessna), if the door pops open, it’s just annoying. It’s just noisy, not dangerous.”
Perhaps our favorite line of all about this teachable moment caught on video: “!someone told me many years ago—no one has died because of an open door in a light aircraft, but plenty have died trying to close one.”
