Nicholas J. Allen

We wish to report an incident which may be valuable to this directive. Yesterday, on 27 April 2008, we experienced an incident on a Dornier aircraft, where the rear passenger door burst open on take off, causing the pilots to effect an emergency landing. Details as follows. Date of Incident: 27 April 2008 Time of Incident: Approximately 13.30 Location of Incident: El Nido Airport, Palawan, Philippines (Grass Runway) Flight: El Nido to Manila, Philippines Type of Aircraft: Believed to be a Dornier (Not Sure of Model) Aircraft Markings: RP C22883 Color: White Aircraft Owner/Operator: Island Transvoyager Inc (Aircraft May Have Been Leased To Them) Captain: Roberto Cohen Description of Event: The aircraft has approximately 19 seats. The rear two rows were unoccupied. My wife and I occupied the third row from the rear. The aircraft did an abortive take off, with a sudden emergency deceleration near to the point when it would normally rotate to take off. The aircraft then came to a halt, turned and stopped. A ground staff member ran over to the aircraft and opened and closed the door again. The aircraft then taxied back to the take off position. On the second attempt, the door blew open right at the point where the aircraft was about to rotate again into the air. The pilot then performed another emergency stop, this time stopping very close to the end of the runway The aircraft then taxied back to the parking area. The Captain came back to the door, and stated that 'the pin' had come out or some words similar to this. We then disembarked and refused to take the flight. We then took an alternative flight home from a different airport. We believe that the aircraft was utilized later in the day to transport passengers to Manila In summary; 1. We consider ourselves extremely lucky that the aircraft had not rotated into the air prior to the door opening, and that the pilots were able to stop the aircraft. 2. Clearly, there is a problem with the door, and this aircraft is not airworthy 3. The door burst open on its own, there was no person near the door when it blew open. 4. The strong vibrations from the uneven grass runway may have caused the door to burst open. We provide this information in the hope that it will assist in this directive, improve the safety of this aircraft and prevent such incidents in the future. Please call me or E mail me directly if I can provide additional information. Please also advise the procedure with which this incident has been reported by the responsible airline or aircraft operator or owner, and whether additional agencies should be notified and appropriate action taken. Sincerely, Nicholas J. Allen