The door fell from an unnamed pilot’s Vans RV-10 (pictured). Photo: Van’s Aircraft // Instagram
A group of New South Wales surfers recently got a shock when they watched an airplane door plummet to earth in front of them. The incident occurred at South Broulee Beach, where the improperly secured door ripped off a small plane and nearly landed on top of a local beachgoer.
Local surfer Murphy Shaw was one of the witnesses to the incident. As he told ABC news, panic started to set in when the lineup realized the falling door appeared to be heading in the direction of a nearby beachgoer. “Everyone in the water tried to get the attention of this bloke who was fishing because it became pretty evident that we could witness something pretty horrible,” he explained.
Luckily the door ended up landed in coastal scrub roughly 20 yards away from the fisher. According to Shaw, the man appeared completely unfazed by the plummeting hunk of metal. “He just went about his business — cool as a cucumber, really,” he explained. “Five minutes later, someone had picked up the door and was walking out of the beach, carrying it over their head, almost like an old longboard.”
According to ABC, the door came from a privately owned RV-10 four-seater plane, which landed safely after the incident. According to Eurobodalla Shire Council, the pilot told airport staff that “the door latch was not secured properly.”
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau told the ABC it would “not conduct an investigation as it would be unlikely to yield any new safety lessons.”
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