One of the main cabin doors of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by South American airline LATAM has been ripped clean off the fuselage during a mishap at one of the most remote airports in the world… And now, engineers have to work out how they are going to fix the airplane with limited tools available.
The 12-year-old Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner flew from Santiago de Chile to Mataveri Airport on Easter Island, located 3,759 km off the coast of South America in the South Pacific Ocean, on Friday, May 29, and has been grounded ever since.
Mataveri Airport handles just one or two flights per day and has very limited resources. There isn’t a heavy engineering base at the airport, and carrying out repairs of this magnitude is going to prove incredibly challenging.
As the airport does not have jetbridges, the plane was parked up on a so-called remote stand, and a set of mobile airstairs was attached to the second main cabin door on the left-hand side of the aircraft.
It’s not quite what happened next, but it appears that the aircraft rolled back while the airstairs were still attached. The door was ripped off the frame of the airplane and ended up sitting atop the airstairs.
The 12-year-old plane (registration: CC-BBD) has been grounded on Easter Island ever since, while engineers formulate a plan to try to get it fixed.
The repair work required will depend on whether any structural damage has been caused to the carbon composite fuselage of the plane, although this isn’t the first time this type of accident has occurred to a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and in past incidents, repairs have been fairly straightforward.
The issue is more with the limited resources available at Mataveri Airport.
There has been speculation that LATAM could try to get the aircraft back to Santiago without a cabin door attached, flying the plane unpressurized at a low altitude.
Such a plan would require careful coordination with Boeing to ensure that the airplane has the structural strength to withstand a more than five-hour flight over a vast distance of ocean.
There is also speculation that a temporary plug could be installed, allowing this ‘fery’ flight to take place without any structural integrity issues. The final option would be to fly out a replacement door, specialist engineers, and other equipment to carry out the repairs on Easter Island.
In any case, it appears that this particular Boeing 787 could be grounded for some time.
When an airline has all the necessary equipment at its disposal, however, these types of incidents can be easily remedied. In April, for example, the main cabin door of a China Airlines Airbus A350 was partially ripped off its hinges when it rolled back with the jetbridge still attached at Melbourne Tullamarine Airport.
The plane was only grounded for six days before positioning back to its home base in Taipei, Taiwan, and then returning to commercial service the following day.
In 2023, an American Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner was grounded at Dublin International Airport after Door 2L was completely sheared off when the jetbridge unexpectedly dropped while attached to the plane.
No passengers or crew were onboard the plane when the accident happened… and thankfully, no ground staff were standing below the plane when the door came crashing down onto the tarmac below.
