WILLEMSTAD - An opening cabin door during a flight from Aruba to Curaçao caused panic and indignation among passengers of the airline Divi Divi Air. The incident, which occurred on Monday, August 14th, only made headlines through social media this weekend after a passenger on the respective flight shared her story with a radio station. The woman was upset that Divi Divi provided so little follow-up care to the passengers and furthermore did not publicize the incident, which experts also describe as serious.
Divi Divi only issued a press statement last Sunday afternoon, nearly a week after the incident, after the news received considerable attention, especially on Facebook and the news site Awor.nu. According to the airline, they chose not to publicize the incident yet, as the civil aviation authority CCAA is still investigating the exact cause of the incident.
Discrepancy
There are several discrepancies between the passenger's account of the incident and the airline's explanation. The involved passenger states that the plane landed in Curaçao with the door still open, while passengers on the flight tried to keep it closed as much as possible by pulling on two cables attached to the door.
However, Divi Divi mentions that the pilots of the flight received a warning in the cockpit that the door had been unlocked for a short period, but that it was closed again during landing. The airline also seems to attribute the incident to a passenger's action. "We cannot come to any other conclusion than that a passenger inadvertently shifted a door handle, causing the door to open," Divi Divi stated in their release. The airline expressed regret for the passengers' fear but also emphasized that there was no immediate danger to the passengers' safety.
The incident occurred during an evening flight when the DHC 6-300 aircraft had already begun its descent.