254
14 CFR Ch. I (1–1–14 Edition)
§ 23.785
(3) There must be a means of opening
which is simple and obvious and is ar-
ranged and marked inside and outside
so that the door can be readily located,
unlocked, and opened, even in dark-
ness.
(4) The door must meet the marking
requirements of § 23.811 of this part.
(5) The door must be reasonably free
from jamming as a result of fuselage
deformation in an emergency landing.
(6) Auxiliary locking devices that are
actuated externally to the airplane
may be used but such devices must be
overridden by the normal internal
opening means.
(d) In addition, each external pas-
senger or crew door, for a commuter
category airplane, must comply with
the following requirements:
(1) Each door must be openable from
both the inside and outside, even
though persons may be crowded
against the door on the inside of the
airplane.
(2) If inward opening doors are used,
there must be a means to prevent occu-
pants from crowding against the door
to the extent that would interfere with
opening the door.
(3) Auxiliary locking devices may be
used.
(e) Each external door on a com-
muter category airplane, each external
door forward of any engine or propeller
on a normal, utility, or acrobatic cat-
egory airplane, and each door of the
pressure vessel on a pressurized air-
plane must comply with the following
requirements:
(1) There must be a means to lock
and safeguard each external door, in-
cluding cargo and service type doors,
against inadvertent opening in flight,
by persons, by cargo, or as a result of
mechanical failure or failure of a single
structural element, either during or
after closure.
(2) There must be a provision for di-
rect visual inspection of the locking
mechanism to determine if the exter-
nal door, for which the initial opening
movement is not inward, is fully closed
and locked. The provisions must be dis-
cernible, under operating lighting con-
ditions, by a crewmember using a
flashlight or an equivalent lighting
source.
(3) There must be a visual warning
means to signal a flight crewmember if
the external door is not fully closed
and locked. The means must be de-
signed so that any failure, or combina-
tion of failures, that would result in an
erroneous closed and locked indication
is improbable for doors for which the
initial opening movement is not in-
ward.
(f) In addition, for commuter cat-
egory airplanes, the following require-
ments apply:
(1) Each passenger entry door must
qualify as a floor level emergency exit.
This exit must have a rectangular
opening of not less than 24 inches wide
by 48 inches high, with corner radii not
greater than one-third the width of the
exit.
(2) If an integral stair is installed at
a passenger entry door, the stair must
be designed so that, when subjected to
the inertia loads resulting from the ul-
timate static load factors in
§ 23.561(b)(2) and following the collapse
of one or more legs of the landing gear,
it will not reduce the effectiveness of
emergency egress through the pas-
senger entry door.
(g) If lavatory doors are installed,
they must be designed to preclude an
occupant from becoming trapped inside
the lavatory. If a locking mechanism is
installed, it must be capable of being
unlocked from outside of the lavatory.
[Doc. No. 4080, 29 FR 17955, Dec. 18, 1964; 30
FR 258, Jan. 9, 1965, as amended by Amdt. 23–
36, 53 FR 30813, Aug. 15, 1988; Amdt. 23–46, 59
FR 25772, May 17, 1994; Amdt. 23–49, 61 FR
5166, Feb. 9, 1996]
§ 23.785
Seats, berths, litters, safety
belts, and shoulder harnesses.
There must be a seat or berth for
each occupant that meets the fol-
lowing:
(a) Each seat/restraint system and
the supporting structure must be de-
signed to support occupants weighing
at least 215 pounds when subjected to
the maximum load factors cor-
responding to the specified flight and
ground load conditions, as defined in
the approved operating envelope of the
airplane. In addition, these loads must
be multiplied by a factor of 1.33 in de-
termining the strength of all fittings
and the attachment of—
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