A B777 captain reported that a baggage container came loose in flight and was heard to have impacted...

Narrative:

During initial descent we heard a loud impact noise behind the cockpit. After talking with the flight attendants we came to the conclusion that we had a loose baggage container in the forward baggage compartment. After contacting our dispatch and maintenance we were told we were on our own and proceeded to our destination. We knew that we had to keep a nose up attitude above zero degrees so the lose baggage container could not move around in the aproximately 60 ft long baggage compartment. We declared an emergency and asked for the equipment to stand by as we did not know the damage to our aircraft. We were able to stop the container from moving around and after a long traffic pattern had a smooth and safe landing. We used the whole runway and stopped after clearing the runway. The fire department checked the airplane for obvious damage and informed us they could not see any damage from the outside. We continued to the gate and disembarked our passengers safely. After arriving at the gate it was clear that we had a loose container in the forward baggage compartment.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B777 Captain reported that a baggage container came loose in flight and was heard to have impacted the aft wall of the foreword baggage compartment. An emergency was declared in order to allow the crew the most maneuvering freedom to keep the container from moving.

Narrative: During initial descent we heard a loud impact noise behind the cockpit. After talking with the Flight Attendants we came to the conclusion that we had a loose baggage container in the forward baggage compartment. After contacting our Dispatch and Maintenance we were told we were on our own and proceeded to our destination. We knew that we had to keep a nose up attitude above zero degrees so the lose baggage container could not move around in the aproximately 60 FT long baggage compartment. We declared an emergency and asked for the equipment to stand by as we did not know the damage to our aircraft. We were able to stop the container from moving around and after a long traffic pattern had a smooth and safe landing. We used the whole runway and stopped after clearing the runway. The Fire Department checked the airplane for obvious damage and informed us they could not see any damage from the outside. We continued to the gate and disembarked our passengers safely. After arriving at the gate it was clear that we had a loose container in the forward baggage compartment.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	918013
Time
Date	201011
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B777-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 20000 Flight Crew Type 3000
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown

A B777 captain reported that a baggage container came loose in flight and was heard to have impacted the aft wall of the foreword baggage compartment. An emergency was declared in order to allow the crew the most maneuvering freedom to keep the container from moving.