Doors popping open in flight

ummm. let's change "hold the door open" to "hold the door closed"
"tom418" wrote in message
news:fTmbg.130490$k%3.2538@dukeread12...
Several years ago, in Plane & Pilot magazine, there was an article on a
six-place Piper (Saratoga?). One of the pictures showed the upper latch of
the cabin door clearly unlatched, with the resulting gap visible.
Apparently
they had no problems (except for the noise)

A few years ago, I departed IFR in my Seneca, and the forward door became
unlatched. There was a lot of wind noise, but like other posters here
said,
there was no need
to hold the door open. I was flying from Palmer MA, to Islip, NY. (Turning
back to Palmer was out of the question) I made a request for a landing at
Groton, CT.
The controllers put my IFR in suspense, and
after landing I was on my merry (and quieter) way.

"bob" wrote in message
. ..
How serious is it on small twin engines with only one door? Or with 2
doors, for that matter?

A friend of mine tells me that he once had a twin engine Piper crash to
investigate due to ditching. It was later learned upon the conclusion
of
the investigation that a passenger in the back seat was trying to switch
places with someone in the front and the door inadvertently popped open.
At
that point the investigator determined, from his own similar
experience,
that the plane sunk like a rock due to critical disruption of the
airflow
to that could not be corrected in flight.
--The door could not be closed again!---

As for my friend with his similar experience, his friend's hand was all
bloody from trying to hold it closed as much as he could. Fortunately,
they
made a safe emergency landing at an island the just happened to be
nearby.

I've only flow small single engines and had NO IDEA how serious this
could
be. They don't teach you that in flight school. Or is it because
single
engines with only one door do not react the same as the twins.

Tell me the straight skinny so I know next time I go flying.

Thanks