MD-11
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 135; Flight Crew Total 6500; Flight Crew Type 2000
Fatigue; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Object
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Human Factors
Flight was scheduled as an AM turn. Due to a tail swap the flight was significantly delayed. The flight duration was longer than scheduled due to enroute weather. I had a perception of a need to rush due to the late arrival. During loading I offered to close the cargo door if loading was complete; something I usually do not do on a turn. For some reason; I expect partially due to fatigue with the day longer than what I had anticipated; a sense of urgency and trying to move things along; I had a flawed mental model of what I was looking at when I cleared the area around the door before closing. I looked outside the door; saw no loaders moving around; and saw the lower portion of the loader on the ground away from the aircraft. I started lowering the cargo door and almost immediately realized that the upper portion of the loader was up against the aircraft. I tried to reverse the movement of the door; but it was too late. The cargo door descended until meeting the resistance of the railing on the loader; then reversed itself. My flawed mental model; insufficient clearing; false sense of a need to rush and fatigue level all contributed to a remarkably poor decision that I never would have thought I could make.
After the cargo door contacted the loader during loading the mechanic performed an inspection for damage; which should have been entered into the logbook.
During turn-around preflight; pilot assisted with cargo loading and closed cargo bin door while the cargo loader was in place. The door contacted the loader railings. Pilot did not enter the event into the aircraft logbook prior to the required maintenance inspection.