This week, an American Airlines flight bound for Dallas Fort-Worth had to return to Raleigh/Durham due to a cargo door open indication.
Such an event happened minutes after departure when the crew were notified of this occurrence.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
AA802 – Raleigh/Durham-Dallas Fort-Worth…
American Airlines flight AA802 is a routine scheduled flight between Raleigh/Durham and Dallas Fort-Worth.
The affected rotation, which suffered the cargo door open indication, was operated by N567UW.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N567UW is a 10.6 year old Airbus A321-231 that was delivered to the airline in December 2013.
This came following the merger with US Airways.
Of the A321ceo variant, American Airlines has 218 of them in the fleet, of which 213 are in active service.
Within that variant, it features an average fleet age of 11.6 years.
AA802 departed Raleigh at 0653 local time on March 11 and initially proceeded out to Dallas Fort-Worth.
As per reporting from The Aviation Herald, the crew stopped their climb at 5,000 feet.
This was due to an indication received in the cockpit about a cargo door being opened.
From there, the aircraft made a u-turn back to Raleigh, where it landed safely at 0710 local time.
Why Did They Have To Return?
The crew onboard American Airlines flight AA802, originally bound for Dallas Fort-Worth, made the correct call in returning to Raleigh.
If they opted to continue the flight and the cargo door was in fact open, it could have ripped off the aircraft.
This would have caused damage to the fuselage of the aircraft.
It is understood that a replacement aircraft was sent to Raleigh to pick up the passengers, and landed into Dallas Fort-Worth with a delay of just over two hours.
As for N567UW, the issue was rectified quickly, with the aircraft being placed into commercial service around three hours after the incident.
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