(suspenseful music) - [Narrator] On April 28th, 1988, Aloha Airlines Flight 243, took off from Hawaii's
Hilo International Airport. The flight was traveling to Honolulu, less than an hour away. The weather was glorious,
conditions were optimal, but just a few minutes after takeoff, a massive boom suddenly
jolted the entire plane. Without any warning, the roof
covering the first class cabin was explosively ripped away. Passengers and flight crew panicked. Would they be sucked out
into the big blue sky? Would they be able to
make an emergency landing? Would the rest of the plane
break apart at any minute? If you want to find out what happened, stay tuned as we take off
into this terrifying story and many more like it. (upbeat music) (suspenseful music) Aboard Flight 243 on that fateful day, where 89 passengers and six crew members, including captain Robert Schornstheimer and First Officer Madeline Tompkins. Together, they had more than 10,000 hours of flight experience with
this model of aircraft, the Boeing 737. The plane was 19 years old, about 10 years from the end
of its expected life span. And earlier that day, it had made three round trip flights from Honolulu to Hilo, Maui and Kauai. Nothing unusual is noted in
the pre-departure inspection. And the plane had recently
passed a Boeing service bulletin and an airworthiness directive
by two separate inspectors. On paper, the aircraft was in
top condition and ready to go. However, as one passenger was getting on, she looked out over the boarding bridge and noticed a crack in
the aircraft's fuselage about halfway between the
aircraft door and the bridge hood. She assumed the staff
must have known about it, and so said nothing to any
ground crew or personnel. After all preflight checks were cleared, the plane took off without incident. The aircraft began its ascent, climbing up further and further with passengers still being
shown the seatbelt on signs. As the pilots started
leveling off the plane at around 24,000 feet,
that's when they heard it. A boom! A huge cacophonous eruption followed by the rushing sound of wind. First Officer Tompkins'
head was flung back and she saw pieces of
debris like insulation foam floating around in the cockpit. It was then that the pilots looked back and noticed the entry door
to the cockpit was missing. But where the first-class
ceiling should've been, all they could see now was blue sky. Out in first class, passengers were clinging to
their seats, utterly terrified. They'd witnessed a small section of the left-hand side of
the plane, suddenly rupture, which had led to explosive
decompression of the cabin and 300 mile per hour
winds ripping off the roof. Now aircraft have cabin air systems that control pressurization,
air flow, and temperature. The higher up in the
atmosphere a plane flies, the less oxygen there is
and the colder it gets. So these systems are critical to ensure passengers don't suffocate or freeze on their flight. When explosive decompression
happens, though, these systems stop working, which is why on passenger planes, oxygen masks drop from the ceiling. However, on Flight 243, an 18-foot section of the
roof and sides of the plane had been torn off above
the passengers' head along with their oxygen masks. They were, thankfully, still
strapped into their seats, but the cabin crew that
had been standing there had to cling on to anything they could to prevent being swept off their feet, but tragically one didn't make it in time. Number one, attendant Clarabelle Lansing, was immediately swept out of the hole that appeared in the left
side of the aircraft. Number two attendant, Michelle Honda, was thrown to the ground, but managed to crawl up and down the aisle to check on the passengers
and try to keep them calm. With the cockpit still mostly intact, the pilots donned their own oxygen masks. They realized quickly that all
of their controls felt loose. The plane was rolling left and right threatening to drop out
of the sky any second. Tompkins turned their transponder
into an emergency code to notify Honolulu that they needed to make
an emergency landing in nearby Maui. But the noise of the cockpit was so loud none of her transmissions could be heard. The pilots couldn't communicate
with the flight attendants or even hear one another. And so resorting to hand signals, they began an emergency descent. Wasting no time, they dropped fast, at one point plummeting down at more than 4,100 feet per minute. The ideal rate of
descent in passenger jets traveling above 10,000 feet is around 3000 feet per minute to prevent a steep or uncontrollable drop, but considering Flight 243's already uncontrollable situation, they just needed to get on the
ground as fast as possible. Eventually they dropped below 14,000 feet. Tompkins was able to reach
Maui's emergency channel and requested an emergency landing, along with medical equipment for what she assumed would
be a lot of casualties and fatalities. Maui began preparations
at Kahului Airport. As the passengers in first
class began to suffocate from the lack of oxygen. When they made it below 10,000 feet, Captain Schornstheimer
slowed the aircraft down in accordance with air traffic
control speed limitations. At this height, they
could at least breathe and began to gradually turn
the plane towards the runway. As he slowed down to 170 knots, about 195 miles per hour, he noticed the plane
became less responsive. To land, he needed to be
going at least 130 knots, around 50 miles per hour slower, but he had no choice. It was either slow down and lose control of the plane in the air, or make it to the runway and risk crashing in a super speedy landing. A breakneck 170 knots it was. He ordered Tompkins to
lower the landing gear. The main gear light flashed green, but one extension light wasn't green, the nose gear wasn't down. They manually overrode
the computer to drop it, but the light refused to illuminate. They tried it one more time and pulled the override handle down, but the light still wasn't on. Usually they'd be able to check if it was down through a
viewer, but it was blocked. And instead of wasting
time trying to clear it, the captain insisted on
landing the plane immediately. If he was wrong and the front landing gear wasn't actually down, they weren't going to hit the tarmac at almost 200 miles per hour, without anything to stabilize
the front of the plane. It'd be a guaranteed crash, but they had no choice, but to pray. Thankfully, those landing
gear indicator lights turned out to be malfunctioning. The nose gear was indeed down and 13 minutes after the
explosive decompression, Schornstheimer and Tompkins hit the runway and successfully landed. What greeted the emergency
services at Kahului Airport made everyone's jaws drop. The plane had been ripped
open like a can of sardines. Of the 89 passengers and
crew, 65 of them were injured, eight seriously, and one, Clarabelle Lansing, fatally. The plane to was damaged beyond repair. Now last I checked,
passenger jets like this aren't meant to turn into convertibles. So what on earth happened here? Well, typically, the
fuselage skin of a plane is around 2.5 millimeters thick, so about the same thickness
as two credit cards, It's made up of sheet metal, which, on the Boeing
737s, were made in panels about four meters long
and two meters wide. To attach them together, holes
are drilled into the edges and they're joined by a series of rivets. Obviously, the skin is weaker
at these overlapped joints, which is where the
investigators began to suspect the original hole had appeared. They then interviewed the passenger who claimed she'd seen
a crack in the fuselage before takeoff. The area she pointed out was the exact same area
investigators believed the original hole appeared before the high winds ripped
off the rest of the roof. So how had not one, but
two separate inspectors missed this crack? It turned out to keep the cost of inspecting older Boeing aircraft down, the Federal Aviation Administration only made fuselage inspections mandatory along the two most critical joints. Inspections of the other joints fell to the discretion of each airline. Despite the aircraft having
operated for 35,496 hours or four years in a salty and highly
corrosive oversea environment, Aloha Airlines hadn't thought it necessary to inspect every last joint. It was this combination
of maintenance complacency that ultimately led to Flight
243's terrifying ordeal. It was such a catastrophic
failure of maintenance standards that US regulators overhauled
the inspection process of all older aircraft in their service. The Airworthiness Assurance
Task Force was established, mandatory corrosion control
programs were developed, and if a defect was found on one plane, an entire fleet re-inspection
could be ordered. It was a huge, expensive undertaking, but one that was too late
for Clarabelle Lansing. Sadly, her body was never found, but it could have been worse were it not for the incredibly
brave actions of the crew. They were rightfully hailed as heroes. However, they wouldn't be the last crew to live through something so scary because of bad maintenance practices. Before we take a look at
another incredible story that I'd argue is even more shocking, be sure to hit those like and
subscribe buttons down below. All done? Then brace yourself, because I promise you're
not going to believe this next story. (gentle music)
(graphic whooshes) British airways, Flight 5390. On June 10th, 1990, a British Airways flight traveling from Birmingham to Malaga set off with 81 passengers and six crew on board a BAC One-Eleven aircraft. Co-pilot, Alastair Atchison, and Captain Timothy Lancaster
were experienced airmen who'd clocked up almost
2200 hours of flight time on BA One-Elevens and had no issues during takeoff. At 17,000 feet, they loosened their belts and informed the cabin crew they could prepare for meal service. Air steward, Nigel Ogden, entered the cockpit 27
minutes into the flight to ask what the pilots
wanted for breakfast, but then without any warning, the unimaginable happened. Two of the left-hand side
cockpit windscreen panels suddenly blew out and rapid
decompression rocked the plane. Every loose object that
wasn't strapped down was sent hurdling through the cockpit, including Captain Lancaster. His body was horrifyingly sucked out of the plane head first, but his feet were caught
on the control column. The explosion had also
ripped the cockpit door off its hinges and smashed
it into the center console, blocking essential instruments. Because the captain's feet had dragged the control column forward. the planes autopilot disconnected and the aircraft dropped
down into a nosedive. Without a second to lose, air steward, Ogden, leaped forward and grabbed the captain's waist just in time to stop him from
being pulled all the way out. As the pressure equalized, the wind began roaring back in causing a tornado of debris in the cockpit and pinning captain Lancaster against the top of the fuselage. Ogden held onto the captain for dear life, but co-pilot, Atchison, couldn't reach the essential controls as the plane dive down. He sent out a mayday call, but over the roaring wind, he couldn't tell if the
controllers had heard him. The plane began to plummet through some of the busiest
airspace in the country. Two more flight attendants fought their way into the cockpit, grabbing onto the captain
and stamping on the door to unblock the essential systems. By this point, Ogden was
suffering from a lack of oxygen, frostbite from the freezing
350 mile per hour winds, and felt like his arms were
about to be ripped off! Unable to keep hold of
the captain any longer, the two other air stewards grabbed hold of the captains feet. As they did, the co-pilot
regained control of the plane and pulled up to make a slower descent. Captain Lancaster's
body began to slide down to the left of the plane, leaving his face plastered
against the window. Inside the cockpit, everyone's heart sank. He didn't look like he'd made it. They briefly contemplated
letting his body go, but Ogden shot the idea down
immediately on principle. There was also a chance that he'd be sucked
into one of the engines, potentially bringing
the entire plane down! Then, Atchison began the unenviable task of bringing down a two-pilot
jet all by himself. The charts and checklists had also been blown out of the cockpit. It just couldn't get any worse! He managed to contact air traffic control, who directed him to Southampton Airport, an airport he was
completely unfamiliar with. Relying on the controller alone, without his charts,
checklists, or captain, he guided the aircraft down and somehow made a safe emergency landing! The 81 passengers, having seen their lives
flash before their eyes, disembarked without a
single reported injury. Though it wasn't such a happy
story for Captain Lancaster. He'd been battered against
the outside of the plane in temperatures as low as
-1.4 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. There was no hope for his survival. And yet, as paramedics removed his body, he opened his eyes. He was alive! Despite his ordeal, he suffered
little more than frostbite, a few bruises, and a
couple of minor fractures. After a brief stint in the hospital, he returned to service
just 5 months later. It was, in a word, miraculous! Now, I'm no aviation expert, but I'm pretty sure jet plane windscreens aren't meant to pop out like that. So, what the hell happened? Well, an extensive investigation discovered that a few days
before the fateful flight, the plane had undergone a routine service. On a list of things to fix up, it needed a new captain's side windscreen. The shift maintenance manager
decided to do the job himself. It had been a few years
since he'd last replaced one, and yet he didn't look up the procedure in the plane's manual. After removing all 90 bolts
securing the windscreen, he noticed they were a little corroded, so decided to replace them as well. However, the replacements
he used were too narrow; only by 0.02 of an inch, but enough to cause a problem, as he'd soon realize. Without checking the work over, the plane was returned to service for its next journey, Flight 5390. Once in the sky, the pressure
pulled the narrow bolts right out of their holes, popping the replaced windscreens out, and nearly costing the captain his life! It was an incident that stemmed off an aircraft maintenance culture of getting the job done on time, which relied on quick judgment calls and disregarded basic safety violations. As a result of the
investigation's findings, sweeping changes were made to the way British Airways
maintenance engineers worked. Shift managers were no longer allowed to self-certify their own work, engineers were to receive
periodic retraining, and all were required to
re-certify their qualifications every few years. This would ensure any
unsafe habits picked up were quickly dropped, and that all pilots would be safe knowing that they'd be
flying inside their plane instead of on top of it from now on! (gentle music)
(graphic whooshes) Delta Flight 1425. It's not just explosive
or rapid decompression that can have pilots scrambling to make an emergency landing. On June 8th, 2019, Delta Airlines, Flight 1425, took off from Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, heading for Baltimore with
148 passengers on board. The one and a half hour
trip took place daily on Delta's MacDonnell
Douglas MD-88 aircraft, usually without incident, but not today. Shortly after take-off, a number of passengers heard a loud boom. At first, they thought
it might be turbulence, but then they began to
smell something odd. It was smoke. Not the kind you smell from a cigarette, but the strong, scary
kind from burning metal. And it was slowly filling the cabin. Flight attendants worked quickly
to keep all passengers calm and informed the captain. That's when the plane
suddenly slowed down, it began to get hot, and the air circulation cut off It was then that passenger, Logan Webb, looked out their window, and saw this. (plane engine revving)
(gentle music) Do you know what that thing
dancing around dangerously in the engine is? That's the engine's nose cone! Somehow, mid-flight, it'd detached from the central
shaft of the plane's engine and was rattling around
against the fan blades! And that exposed, red-hot center doesn't look too good either! The passengers were told to prepare for an emergency landing. And miraculously, the plane safely landed in Raleigh, North Carolina. No passengers or crew were injured, and they were all safely
transferred onto another flight. The airline initially said that they made the emergency landing because of a possible issue
with one of the engines. Possible issue? I'm no pilot, but I'm pretty certain
that seeing a nose cone detach like that mid-flight is a definite issue! Even so, Aviation expert, John Cox, claimed the plane wasn't
in that much danger because all airliners are
designed to be able to fly with one inoperative engine. Delta hasn't yet disclosed how this had been allowed to happen, but later revealed that
they were planning to scrap all MD-88's from their fleet by 2020. Gee, I wonder why? (gentle music) (graphic whooshes) Flybe Flight 1284. Making a rough landing
in a large passenger jet with hundreds of other people
on board seems pretty scary, but on smaller planes it's
another level of fear. And anyone who was on
board Flybe Flight 1284 on February 23rd, 2017, will probably agree! The flight, which had taken
off from Edinburgh, Scotland and was landing at Schiphol, Amsterdam, was a Dash-8 turbo prop powered plane. So, no jet engines with
cones that fall off here. Though that wasn't the
problem with this flight. After a delay of 90 minutes at
take-off due to bad weather, the plane and its 59 passengers and 6 crew finally had the landing strip in sight, but it turned out to be
one heck of a bumpy ride. (plane engine revving) (indistinct) Did you see that? The second the plane touched down, it's right-side landing gear collapsed. Oh, those passengers were so lucky the blade didn't snap off and
fling through the fuselage when it hit the tarmac! Fortunately, none of the
passengers or crew were injured, though the airport called
out the emergency services just in case. It took the Dutch Safety Board over a year to get to the bottom of the collapse, and they eventually released
an almost 50-page long investigative document. It turned out there was
a faulty proximity sensor that hadn't been detected, and a slight fault in the
main landing gear yoke. This is the bit attached to the wheels, but the fault had been
acquired back when the plane was first constructed! It just hadn't been picked
up on until it was too late. Combined with the dud sensor and the rough conditions at Schiphol, when the aircraft touched down, the main landing gear strut was placed under too much
torsion and collapsed. Fortunately, it only resulted in a landing that was a little lopsided Though if you ask me, any landing you can walk
away from is a good landing! (gentle music) (graphic whooshes) Splash landing. Having to make an
emergency landing on land, in a passenger jet is no easy feat. Although, having your engine cut out while you're still in
the air, over the water, in an old war relic is arguably way more terrifying. Back in April 2021, Florida's Cocoa Beach Air
Show was in full swing Hundreds of aircraft from all eras were taking off from the nearby
Patrick Space Force Base, with thousands of onlookers
perched on the beach. But when a World War II era TBM Avenger started flying overhead, something didn't sound right. (plane engine revving) (crowd screaming) - [Man] Oh! (wind blowing)
(waves crashing) - [Woman] Oh my God! - [Narrator] The single engine plane suffered a sudden mechanical
function in its lone engine, forcing it to splash land in the water. Miraculously, no one paddling
in the water was hit, and landing luckily in the shallows meant the pilot was at
no risk of drowning. They got out okay, but the plane wasn't so fortunate. It was removed from the beach
and towed back to the base for what experts estimate
to be years of repairs. Better the plane than
the pilot, if you ask me. (gentle music) (graphic whooshes) An illicit landing. Now, it's not just mechanical failures that can force planes to
make emergency landings. Back in July 2020, a group of guys were
traveling around Polyuc in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, when they heard something
strange above them. (helicopter engine revving) (indistinct) A helicopter? Gunfire? What was going on up there? They kept the camera rolling just in case, which is a good thing, because I don't think
anyone would have believed what they saw next without the footage. As they turned onto the highway, they suddenly saw this insane scene (plane engine revving) (man speaking in foreign language) - [Narrator] Up ahead of them
in the middle of the highway was a private plane on fire! According to reports from the scene, the helicopter from before had been firing on the plane, which was suspected to carrying narcotics. It was this that forced it
to make an emergency landing. Once it landed on the highway, the plane's occupants set fire to the multi-million-dollar aircraft before getting into a
nearby truck and fleeing. Mexico's Ministry of Defense later claimed that they found the truck abandoned with more than 200 kilos
of what they believed to be naughty salt
scattered in and around it. That's about $60 million
worth of the stuff. Hoo boy, these guys must
have been in a real hurry to leave so much of it behind. But why would they set fire to the plane? Were they trying to make it
look like they'd crash landed? Maybe burn any evidence? What do you think? Let me know down in the comments. (gentle music) (graphic whooshes) Small plane, big highway. When you're driving down the highway, there are some things you
really don't wanna see. Road work ahead signs, a slow hauler trying to overtake another equally slow hauler, a plane landing in moving traffic. Wait, what was that last one? Back in April 2020, Mathieu Leclerc was traveling
down the busy Highway 40 in Quebec, Canada, when he spotted a light aircraft traveling dangerously low above him. It was a little odd, but he definitely didn't
expect what happened next. (car engine revving) Yep, without warning, the plane dropped down and landed in the middle
of moving traffic! Had this pilot forgotten his glasses and confused the highway
for the landing strip? Well, it turned out that the
pilot of the small aircraft had just taken off from a nearby airport when he started having
some engine trouble. He tried to make it back, but the problem quickly got worse. He got in touch with the
air traffic controller, who suggested that he land
on the highway below him Emergency services were called out, and thankfully no-one was hurt. Might have been a different story if he'd landed in the
lanes going the other way. Well, if you didn't have
a fear of flying before, I bet you do now! Which of these emergency landings did you think was the most dramatic? And have you ever been
involved in one yourself? Let me know down in the comments below, and thanks for watching! (upbeats music)
