Following receipt of a forward cargo door open warning the flight crew of a dash 8 declared and emer...

Narrative:

Climbing through approximately 7;000 ft we received a master warning for fuselage doors which indicated the forward cargo door was open. After the appropriate QRH checklists were completed we notified ATC; declared an emergency and advised the company. Following a normal approach and landing we returned to the gate where maintenance inspected the door and declared it to be operating normally. The ramp crewmember who had loaded the forward cargo compartment and secured the door informed us on the push back that it was his first time working on the Q400. The agent was unfamiliar with operations on the Q400 and maintenance stated that the door had no issues and was fine. The logbook had no previous write-ups involving the forward cargo door.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Following receipt of a forward cargo door open warning the flight crew of a Dash 8 declared and emergency and returned to their departure airport. The ground crew who loaded the aircraft and conducted the pushback had advised this was their first time working a Dash 8 aircraft.

Narrative: Climbing through approximately 7;000 FT we received a master warning for fuselage doors which indicated the forward cargo door was open. After the appropriate QRH checklists were completed we notified ATC; declared an emergency and advised the company. Following a normal approach and landing we returned to the gate where Maintenance inspected the door and declared it to be operating normally. The ramp crewmember who had loaded the forward cargo compartment and secured the door informed us on the push back that it was his first time working on the Q400. The agent was unfamiliar with operations on the Q400 and Maintenance stated that the door had no issues and was fine. The logbook had no previous write-ups involving the forward cargo door.

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	964199
Time
Date	201108
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.TRACON
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Dash 8-400
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Door
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

Following receipt of a forward cargo door open warning the flight crew of a dash 8 declared and emergency and returned to their departure airport. The ground crew who loaded the aircraft and conducted the pushback had advised this was their first time working a dash 8 aircraft.