Talk:Plug door

Boeing exclusive use of plug doors?
FTA: "Commercial aircraft manufactured by Boeing use plug doors exclusively, including the 737, 747, 757, 767 and the 777."

United Airlines Flight 811 shows that Boeing did at some point use outward opening cargo doors on the 747. (still does?) Therefore I marked the quote as needing a citation. 81.221.99.191 19:34, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Whereas I've deleted that sentence since my take is that the outward-opening cargo bay door on the 747 shows that Boeing does not use plug doors exclusively. --Dricherby 19:07, 13 February 2007 (UTC)


 * The Boeing 747 still uses outward opening cargo doors. There have been notable failures due to malfunctions in the latching mechanism, but the design has been improved.  The doors use multiple latches to hold them in place, operated simultaneously by an electric motor and mechanical linkages.  There is also a manual override lever. &mdash; QuicksilverT @ 20:47, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

In the event of decompression...
"'However, in the event of a decompression, with there no longer being a pressure differential, the doors may be opened, and as such most airlines operating procedures require cabin crew to keep passengers away from the doors until the aircraft has safely landed.'" Why would the doors be opened? Would they "pop open" by themselves or be opened by cabin crew? Acdx 01:12, 6 June 2007 (UTC)


 * No they wouldn't open by themselves. However an unruly/panicked passenger could open them easily (including the emergency doors). Aesma (talk) 13:56, 30 October 2010 (UTC)

In Construction section
Use in construction as a reference door is feasible but I've never heard of it in 20yrs as an architect and I can find no reference in web search. Suggest it be reintroduced after referencing. Plug doors are used architecturally but not like this. E x nihil (talk) 11:58, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

Are these really plug doors?
Are the doors described under Buses, Trains and Refrigeration cars really plug doors? I suspect not. The buses and trains ones seem to be just variations on sliders, the refrigeration doors are just heavy and well sealed doors. To be a plug door it needs to wedge into an opening in order to seal it against some pressure differential, otherwise almost everything that shuts is a plug door. I suggest that these three sections be deleted. E x nihil (talk) 07:48, 19 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Perhaps they aren't plug doors when closely examined. However, there are applications for oval-shaped plugs that are used on large vessels to hold liquids, on autoclaves and pressure cookers, that are pulled against the inside wall of the vessel with some sort of clamp or jackscrew.  Some are used merely for filling and emptying the vessel, while others are large enough to use as a hatch for cleaning and maintenance.  They don't rely entirely on pressure differential and wedging to hold them in place, but once the vessel is filled or pressurized, they cannot be opened.  It might be worth covering in this article, unless it's been covered elsewhere in Wikipedia. &mdash; QuicksilverT @ 21:04, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
 * This article clearly defines its scope in the introduction, and "sliding plug doors" have no place here. There is already such a place: Bus doors and Sliding door (car). Hatnotes need to direct the reader elsewhere for these. JustinTime55 (talk) 21:27, 6 November 2019 (UTC)


 * The term 'sliding-plug doors' is used in the railway world: zie rail-door-systems For high speed trains these doors are pressure sealed. These trains have to resist rapid pressure differences while going through railway tunnels at high speed. Otherwise the passengers have earproblems. The scope of the article needs to match the use of the word in the real world, or reference to a sliding-plug article. At the moment there is only one Wikipedia article for Q117075694 for train doors: nl:Treindeur. Besides the sliding guiding systems there is also Q22986165 using a different movement to put the door in the plug opening.Smiley.toerist (talk) 12:56, 27 November 2023 (UTC)

Addressing Reliable Sources issue
I’ve spent about an hour searching for a published source for this term. With all the attention on “door plug” from the Alaska flight, it would sure be nice to improve the quality of this page. Any ideas? Dw31415 (talk) 05:00, 12 January 2024 (UTC)


 * I found plug door is used extensively in this report. I’m not sure how to add that as a source though. The report discusses how a plug door was stuck in an accident. Ideas?
 * Aircraft Vs Accident Report. (n.d.). United States: U.S. Government. Dw31415 (talk) 05:16, 12 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Alaska Flight 1282 uses 'door plug' throughout, not 'plug door', because it isn't one. A 'door plug' just fills a hole where a door would be if installed. A 'plug door' is kept in place by the internal pressure, like a bath plug. The 737 door plugs are fitted from the outside by engaging the bottom edge, swinging inwards, dropping down to engage with 12 stoppers, then bolted twice near the top to prevent it from sliding upwards and out. It actually falls outwards once the restraining bolts are removed and it then shifts up, then there is nothing to stop it from blowing out. A 'plug door' would have stayed in place even without the bolts, this distinction is the key point in the plug loss. So, the Alaska incident does not belong in this article. Ex nihil  (talk) 16:28, 13 January 2024 (UTC).

Split aircraft doors to its own page
Create a new page for Aircraft door types. There has been a good bit of conversation on the talk page for 737 groundings, and likely other places. I’ve read: plug door, door plug, semi-plug door from editors who seems knowledgeable on the topic. I’m starting a conversation here about it and would like to see a little support before adding a stub page and/or proposing a split. Dw31415 (talk) 10:17, 16 January 2024 (UTC)


 * See  Is this an RS? Dw31415 (talk) 10:20, 16 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Just let's keep in mind that a "door plug" is not a door at all, it's a panel installed instead of a door. So listing it under "door types" would be somewhat misleading. Gawaon (talk) 11:45, 16 January 2024 (UTC)