The pilot in training went through the hard way. The terrifying moment occurred when he shook the handle in mid-air and accidentally opened the plane’s door. The small twin-engine plane had to make an emergency landing at the International Airport in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
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The plane’s doors opened in midair when the pilot shook the stick too much. | Video: Reuters
A sensor on the plane alerted the pilots that they had an open door. So the pilot-instructor asked the second pilot in training, thirty-three-year-old Ronald Shearer, to shake the handle. He was supposed to find out if the door is really open or if the sensor is giving a false report.
Even though the door was not open, the pilot shook the handle too hard during practice and the door flew open in mid-air. Fast-flowing air immediately entered the cockpit. “Everything was fine. But then a notification appeared that the door was open. But the door wasn’t open, the sensor just didn’t register that it was closed. At the instructor’s request, I pulled the handle. But I shook it a little too much and the door flew open,” he described pilot in training.
But Shearer failed to close the door again. In the end, the training pilot proved himself and dealt with the unpleasant incident. He tried to hold the door and remained still until the plane landed. “This has never happened to me before. I will never shake the crank again. The sensor was adjusted and fixed last week and the problem has not happened again,” concluded Shearer.
