Airplane Toilet Door Falls Off Hinges 3 Minutes into 16-Hour Flight

On top of the usual roles of managing safety and serving meals, a flight attendant on a Cathay Pacific flight had “hold the toilet door” added to her duties for a short while.

Airplane Toilet Door Falls Off Hinges During Takeoff

According to HK01, Flight CX840 from Hong Kong to New York on 15 July encountered some technical difficulties just three minutes in.

During takeoff, a toilet door fell off its hinges outwards into the cabin.

Photos circulated on social media platform Threads showed a flight attendant seated with seatbelts secured, holding onto the fallen door with one hand to secure it.

As all passengers had their seatbelts on for takeoff, the only casualty of the incident was the door.

Flight tracking websites showed that the flight took around 16 hours. Luckily, the aeroplane had more than one toilet, or it could have been a really crappy flight.

A second photo showed the same flight attendant and two other people examining the toilet doorframe.

Cathay Pacific stated that the defect had been rectified and a follow-up investigation was ongoing.

“We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused.” They said, adding that the safety of passengers and flight crew guided their decisions.

Toilet Door Possibly Fell Due to Loose Screws

While the nature of the defect remains unknown, an expert told his opinion to South China Morning Post (SCMP) that it was the result of loose screws on the door.

I would have assumed it was the deafening soundwaves from flushing an airplane toilet that blew the door off its hinges, but I suppose it could be as the engineering expert said.

The engineers interviewed also felt that there was nothing to worry about regarding the fault.

After all, a toilet door falling off its hinges is probably the least bad problem you could experience during an airplane flight.

For example, a Singapore Airlines flight earlier this year encountered severe turbulence that left one dead and at least 30 injured.

A Boeing 737 Max 9 also had a piece of fuselage torn off 16,000 feet into the air due to loose bolts.

The toilet door even fell off at arguably the best possible time. Imagine if you were in there doing your business when it happened.