Beechjet 400 captain reports strange noise shortly after takeoff and returns to investigate. Fuel do...

Narrative:

Just after takeoff passing through 300 ft and right after we had retracted the gear I heard a loud noise. I pulled the engines back and looked at all the instruments for both engines. I saw no abnormalities; but still heard a noise. We decided to come back around and land the aircraft. When we parked the aircraft and got out to get maintenance we noticed the fuel door was open and the fuel cap was off. The fuel door and cap are located at the wing root on the right side of the aircraft; when I pulled the chocks at the nose wheel I did not see a fuel door open or the fuel cap off. When I questioned the person who fueled the aircraft he stated that he had attached the fuel cap and closed the fuel door. My only conclusion is that if the fuel cap is not turned to an exact spot it will not lock in place and it might look secure but it is not. When it comes to the fuel door being closed; those latches are two button latches. Push one button to open the latch and another button to close the latch. These latches have been known to stick on other doors located on the aircraft. If the fuel door latches were pushed in and the open buttons were not flush to the aircraft skin; I feel it is very possible the fuel cap could have vibrated off on the takeoff or just after liftoff and the vibration of the cap and wind against the fuel door could have caused it to open in flight.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Beechjet 400 Captain reports strange noise shortly after takeoff and returns to investigate. Fuel door was found open and fuel cap missing from the right wing root area.

Narrative: Just after takeoff passing through 300 FT and right after we had retracted the gear I heard a loud noise. I pulled the engines back and looked at all the instruments for both engines. I saw no abnormalities; but still heard a noise. We decided to come back around and land the aircraft. When we parked the aircraft and got out to get maintenance we noticed the fuel door was open and the fuel cap was off. The fuel door and cap are located at the wing root on the right side of the aircraft; when I pulled the chocks at the nose wheel I did not see a fuel door open or the fuel cap off. When I questioned the person who fueled the aircraft he stated that he had attached the fuel cap and closed the fuel door. My only conclusion is that if the fuel cap is not turned to an exact spot it will not lock in place and it might look secure but it is not. When it comes to the fuel door being closed; those latches are two button latches. Push one button to open the latch and another button to close the latch. These latches have been known to stick on other doors located on the aircraft. If the fuel door latches were pushed in and the open buttons were not flush to the aircraft skin; I feel it is very possible the fuel cap could have vibrated off on the takeoff or just after liftoff and the vibration of the cap and wind against the fuel door could have caused it to open in flight.

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	868771
Time
Date	201001
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	Beechjet 400
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	VFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Fuel Tank Cap
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 130 Flight Crew Total 7080 Flight Crew Type 160
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

Beechjet 400 captain reports strange noise shortly after takeoff and returns to investigate. Fuel door was found open and fuel cap missing from the right wing root area.