Following a loud bang; a PA34-200 baggage door flew over the windshield and the aircraft became diff...

Narrative:

On a training flight today in a PA 34/200 I was flying with 2 students doing full stop taxi backs on runway 27 left. After flying one full hour with the first student we pulled off the side of the runway to switch to the other students. After 3 circuits; turning from crosswind to a left downwind for runway 27 left we heard a very loud bang and both saw a black object. Shortly after that the baggage door ripped off the nose of the air plane and flew over at the windshield. At that point we were in a left turn and the aircraft became very hard to control. Not knowing what had happened from inside the aircraft we made shallow banked turns to land on runway 30. I automatically thought it was a bird strike which I informed the tower of. I did not declare an emergency due to the fact the landing gear came down and the engines were running. Although difficult to control did not feel the need to call out an emergency. The FAA met us at the school and claimed it was not a bird strike due to the fact there was no debris. I am positive the baggage door was closed and locked due to the fact it was an initial flight for these two students and a through pre flight was conducted has it was part of the lesson; where I stressed the importance of making sure the baggage door was locked.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Following a loud bang; a PA34-200 baggage door flew over the windshield and the aircraft became difficult to fly so the Instructor with two students in the landing pattern took control and landed.

Narrative: On a training flight today in a PA 34/200 I was flying with 2 students doing full stop taxi backs on Runway 27 left. After flying one full hour with the first student we pulled off the side of the runway to switch to the other students. After 3 circuits; turning from crosswind to a left downwind for Runway 27 left we heard a very loud bang and both saw a black object. Shortly after that the baggage door ripped off the nose of the air plane and flew over at the windshield. At that point we were in a left turn and the aircraft became very hard to control. Not knowing what had happened from inside the aircraft we made shallow banked turns to land on Runway 30. I automatically thought it was a bird strike which I informed the Tower of. I did not declare an emergency due to the fact the landing gear came down and the engines were running. Although difficult to control did not feel the need to call out an emergency. The FAA met us at the school and claimed it was not a bird strike due to the fact there was no debris. I am positive the baggage door was closed and locked due to the fact it was an initial flight for these two students and a through pre flight was conducted has it was part of the lesson; where I stressed the importance of making sure the baggage door was locked.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1166601
Time
Date	201404
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-34-200T Turbo Seneca II
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Cargo Door
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Instructor
Qualification	Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150 Flight Crew Total 1450 Flight Crew Type 275
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

Following a loud bang; a PA34-200 baggage door flew over the windshield and the aircraft became difficult to fly so the instructor with two students in the landing pattern took control and landed.