Roof Ripped Off at 24,000 Feet: The Miraculous Landing of Aloha Airlines Flight 243
Imagine the roof of the plane flying off while you're at an altitude of 7,300 meters and traveling at a speed of 500 kilometers per hour. This scene, which would put horror movies to shame, is not fiction. On April 28, 1988, passengers of Aloha Airlines lived this nightmare for several minutes. The incident, perhaps one of the most interesting accidents in aviation history, the pilots' ability to land the plane safely was perhaps the most mind-boggling part.
Here are the details.
The Journey That Started On An Ordinary Spring Morning Turned Into A Nightmare!
The calendars read April 28, 1988. Flight 243 of Aloha Airlines, which took off from the city of Hilo in Hawaii to go to Honolulu, was nothing more than a routine inter-island journey. The 19-year-old Boeing 737200 took off with 89 passengers and 6 crew members under a clear sky.
The flight was expected to last about 35 minutes. The seat belt warning lights had gone off, and the cabin crew had already started serving drinks to the relaxed passengers.
A Deafening Explosion at 13.48
When the plane reached an altitude of 24,000 feet (approximately 7,300 meters), a terrifying incident occurred on the left front side of the first-class section. There was a sudden loss of pressure accompanied by a violent explosion sound. A ceiling piece of about 5.5 meters, starting just behind the cockpit, was torn like a piece of paper and hurled into the sky.
At that time, the 58-year-old head stewardess Clarabelle Lansing, who was serving the passengers, was pulled out of the plane following the pressure difference and was never found again.
Death Survival Battle on an Open-Top Plane
The inside of the cabin turned into absolute chaos within seconds. Passengers were suddenly left alone with freezing cold and violent wind. The noise of the engine and the howling of the wind were so high that passengers could not even hear the screams of the person next to them. Oxygen masks had flown away with the ceiling.
Among the freezing cold reaching minus 40 degrees, hanging cables in the air, and flying insulation materials, passengers tried to stay on the plane only by holding onto their seat belts. Moreover, the plane was still thousands of meters high.
Miraculous Landing in Maui
Captain Pilot Robert Schornstheimer and Second Pilot Madeline Tompkins in the cockpit realized the severity of the situation when they looked back and saw a section of the cabin completely shattered. The body of the plane was so weakened that it was only a matter of time before the nose drooped and completely broke off. The duo reduced the speed of the plane and quickly decreased the altitude, heading towards Kahului Airport on the nearest island of Maui. The front landing lights were not on, and the left engine was not working.
Despite this, the plane managed to touch down on the runway at 14:12. Of the 94 people on the plane, everyone except Clarabelle Lansing survived.
After the incident, the aviation world faced the reality of 'metal fatigue' and the rules of aircraft maintenance changed forever.
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