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A beechcraft baron pilot reported that the passenger side door opened in flight necessitating an immediate diversion to the nearest airport.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1676686 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201908 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | US |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Baron 58/58TC |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
| Flight Phase | Cruise |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | Exterior Pax/Crew Door |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Pilot Not Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 40 Flight Crew Total 4000 Flight Crew Type 50 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence |
Narrative:
I was the pilot not flying in the right copilot seat. About 10 minutes into the flight we heard a noise. I looked and saw the copilot door was cracked open at the top. We immediately started talking about options to land. We were in VFR flight conditions on top talking to ATC. We discussed continuing to VFR condition further south on are flight path so we could descend to land in VFR conditions and re shut the door. That way in case the door came open we would not be shooting an IFR approach. We were talking to TRACON when the door opened. It blew my headset off and threw my head back against the copilot seat. The pilot called ATC and requested priority handling; stating we had a door open and needed to land. I never heard much off the ATC communication due to the wind blast and trying to hold the door shut. I tried several times to put my headset on but could not until we entered a downwind to land at ZZZ. During this time the pilot saw a VFR hole in the clouds and started to descend while talking to ATC. We landed without incident and checked the door and eventually finished our flight. After action I am taking the plane to an a&P to have the door pins checked.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A Beechcraft Baron pilot reported that the passenger side door opened in flight necessitating an immediate diversion to the nearest airport.
Narrative: I was the Pilot Not Flying in the right copilot seat. About 10 minutes into the flight we heard a noise. I looked and saw the copilot door was cracked open at the top. We immediately started talking about options to land. We were In VFR flight conditions on top talking to ATC. We discussed continuing to VFR condition further south on are flight path so we could descend to land in VFR conditions and re shut the door. That way in case the door came open we would not be shooting an IFR approach. We were talking to TRACON when the door opened. It blew my headset off and threw my head back against the copilot seat. The pilot called ATC and requested priority handling; stating we had a door open and needed to land. I never heard much off the ATC communication due to the wind blast and trying to hold the door shut. I tried several times to put my headset on but could not until we entered a downwind to land at ZZZ. During this time the pilot saw a VFR hole in the clouds and started to descend while talking to ATC. We landed without incident and checked the door and eventually finished our flight. After action I am taking the plane to an A&P to have the door pins checked.
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.