Water Intrusion During Rain with Doors Open

Years ago after the A300's major Mx visit, we started to get water dripping down from main deck into the E&E compartment and not in the pans where it should drain into. It would be raining down in the E&E compartment everywhere; the loading would stop so we could soak up the water from the main deck and E&E areas, which caused huge delays. Apparently at Heavy Check they were removing the flooring from position 1 on the main deck; furthermore, when they reinstalled the floors a different sealant was used causing a shit storm of delays during a rain event, while loading the main deck. Finally got it fixed. I'll try to get pics.

ATA (at least for Airframe Drainage) is 51-80. I had a few moments to drop downstairs and pop some pics.


Forward Relay Racks.



Radar R/T's and (just to the right in grey) Window Heat Controllers.


Main Batteries (aircraft right) and to the rear, the ATC Transponders and TCAS.



R/H Radio Rack with R/H Relay Rack just forward. I believe the relay cover just dumps into rack tray as I saw no hoses for the relay cover.



INS #2. The #1 & #3 INS are in the enclosure just above the #2. Those have their own water tray.



L/H Radio Rack Two drain hoses clearly visible.



Transformer Rectifiers (looking forward) and (I think) the Emergency Inverter just aft and lower.

What I "do" wonder about is if the passenger aircraft use all these trays. I couldn't imagine any massive amount of water coming in though the passenger doors. It should be minuscule compared to a cargo door.

Water would be dripping along the left walkway, over the IRUs, and center circuit breaker area. Major maintenance, like I said, removed the flooring at position 1 on main deck, and used a different sealant which caused the catastrophic water events. From what I heard, Airbus has never seen this happen to any other operator. The only reason we started to see water intrusion, was the pilots go down there for their preflight inspection.

UPS makes their pilots check the lower deck??? Wow. You wouldn't catch the FedEx guys down there.

The biggie for us is to just stop the load and close it up. Managers hate it, but if you use the excuse of lightning...... they can't refuse.

Pilots preflight the E&E compartment only, directly below the cockpit. They look at the ladder, hatch, and general visual of the area. No stowaways...haha