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A B737 captain reported the crew was unable to open the cockpit door at flight termination because some screws had come loose at the bottom of the door.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1282815 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201507 |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Other Park post-arrival |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | Cockpit Door |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 161 Flight Crew Total 11893 Flight Crew Type 11893 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe |
Narrative:
As you know; the 737 cockpit door has a door stop / floor striker mounted on the bottom of the door. The door stop mounting system has two screws screwed into the end of the door. These screws can back out and jam the cockpit door in the closed position. This was the case when we tried to leave the cockpit in ZZZ. Luckily we were done for the day; but we had use the emergency exit means and crawl through the door. And the aircraft was unable to fly the next flight because it took too long to fix the door. May I suggest that if there were no way to remove the screws altogether; these screws be 'safetied'. I would remove the screws; reinstall with locktite and a lock washer; and then cover the two screws with aluminum tape. Also there is a groove in the door frame adjacent to these screws when the door is closed. This groove is what the loose screws get caught in. A small cut out in this groove adjacent to the screws would let the door open if one or both screws did back out.an inflight consequence is apparent.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A B737 Captain reported the crew was unable to open the cockpit door at flight termination because some screws had come loose at the bottom of the door.
Narrative: As you know; The 737 cockpit door has a door stop / floor striker mounted on the bottom of the door. The door stop mounting system has two screws screwed into the end of the door. These screws can back out and jam the cockpit door in the closed position. This was the case when we tried to leave the cockpit in ZZZ. Luckily we were done for the day; but we had use the emergency exit means and crawl through the door. And the aircraft was unable to fly the next flight because it took too long to fix the door. May I suggest that if there were no way to remove the screws altogether; these screws be 'safetied'. I would remove the screws; reinstall with locktite and a lock washer; and then cover the two screws with aluminum tape. Also there is a groove in the door frame adjacent to these screws when the door is closed. This groove is what the loose screws get caught in. A small cut out in this groove adjacent to the screws would let the door open if one or both screws did back out.An Inflight consequence is apparent.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.