Boeing 737 That Started Disintegrating Mid-Flight | Mayday: Air Disaster

we are in an emergency what's the worst that could happen on an airplane maybe this there's not enough oxygen to survive up here a freezing wind of hurricane forces roaring through the cabin the flight crew call Mayday but nobody hears and the airplane is headed for a mountain it sounds like a nightmare for everyone aboard Aloha Airlines flight 243 this is no nightmare it's reality Aloha 243 still up when crash detectives discover what happened their verdict shakes the airline business this accident changed aviation history [Music] some people choose to trespass in that narrow space between life and death it's a scary place to be Surfers get there by chasing killer waves just occasionally fate puts Ordinary People not just Thrill Seekers into that same deadly Zone where life hangs by a thread on the afternoon of April 28 1988 it will happen in the sky over Hawaii foreign PM Aloha Airlines flight 243 is preparing to depart a Boeing 737 is on the tarmac at Hilo airport on Hawaii's Big Island the southernmost of the Hawaii chain flight 243 will be just a 35-minute hop to Honolulu on the island of Oahu serving the islands means that Aloha Works its airplanes hard they make short flights but plenty of them this airplane has been shuttling between the islands since early morning it'll be its ninth flight today for the flight crew it's a routine they've followed for many years Aloha 243 Roger Captain Bob seansteimer has been flying for 11 years with Aloha Airlines his first officer Mimi Tompkins is hoping for promotion to Captain after almost nine years with aloha did you hear any more about each of the flight attendants has a long service record too but none so long as Clarabelle Lansing known to everyone as just CB well Mr Kinder welcome always good to see you CB you fixed some good weather for us she's been flying for 37 years since before the days of the first jet airliner let me help you with this CB is the boss in the cabin first flight attendant Michelle Honda a 14-year veteran is number two Jane Sato tamita has served 19 years this is one of the most experienced Crews you'll find in an airplane that's been crisscrossing Hawaii's islands safely for 19 years circuit breakers it's made more than 89 000 flights on this day only one other 737 in the entire world beats that record checked passengers have no reason to doubt they're in safe hands until one passenger Gail Yamamoto sees something that makes her pause but what is it she's concerned about and how worried should she be Patricia Aubry lives in Hilo but has an appointment today in Honolulu At first she opts for the very front of the airplane in row one but somehow she feels uneasy and decides to move further back he chooses a free seat in row 17. at 1 25 flight 243 is ready for takeoff [Applause] this airplane often rattles and shakes on takeoff and Landing but it's something the crew and regular passengers have grown used to what's there to worry about [Music] Roger he's the captain Bob schwansteimer has chosen to take charge of radio links with air traffic control it's Mimi Tompkins who'll fly the plane to Honolulu most of the flight time is taken up in climbing to their cruising altitude [Music] it'll take 20 minutes to climb to 7 300 meters for many passengers soaring high over the Pacific is all part of the daily routine people like salesman Howard kitayoka in row five he makes this trip often when you've seen the view a hundred times 35 minutes is precious time to catch up on paperwork the flight's so short that the attendants served drinks while they're still climbing they can move around but the passengers are still strapped in [Music] it's 1 45 20 minutes into the flight the aircraft is at cruising height Honolulu Center Aloha 243 leveling off it two four zero the crew relax see where's that National Weather Service weather station out here is that in the Old Tower in perfect flying weather everything is following the familiar pattern [Music] we've lost pressure I saw a brilliant flash of light and boom everything was going was being sucked out of the plane here's what's happened an explosive decompression has torn away 35 square meters of fuselage we were in a tremendous best of wind the wind blast was unbelievable a mass of things just went whoosh out the plane plane everybody was in their seat except the stewardesses I saw the stewardess get smashed down in the in the aisle I could see her hair blowing and I could see blood but I that's all I could see of her Jane Sato Tomita has been struck by debris at row two Michelle Honda has been thrown to the floor at row 15. there's no sign at all of CB Lansing I will take control Power only seconds have passed since the explosion the wind noise makes it impossible for the flight crew to communicate back now for the first time they gain a sense of what's happened visible over a mound of Tangled debris there's Blue Sky where the airplane roof used to be first five rows are now completely exposed to the sky on both sides of the plane the initial threat of being sucked out is passed since the airplanes now completely depressurized but passengers are still in danger my seatmate was flopping out outside the aircraft because at that point it was just the floor and no walls or seating and so I grabbed him the cold and oxygen deprivation are both potentially deadly just imagine the scene up there the top of the airplane broken off the passengers don't have any ability to get supplemental oxygen because the critical tubing that feeds that oxygen is now gone and at 24 000 feet with very little to breathe up there the passengers become incapacitated that's called hypoxia if you stay up at that altitude for any prolonged period of time you become more and more physically disabled with the top of the airplane gone you now have 300 mile an hour winds blowing in that cabin that's three times hurricane force winds those people were dressed for Hawaii in the springtime not minus 50 degree temperatures any period of time at 24 000 feet and those people will die high above the Pacific Ocean and extraordinary drama is unfolding an explosion at 7 300 meters aboard aboard a Boeing 737 Bound for the Hawaiian island of Oahu tears 35 square meters of fuselage from the airplane exposing passengers to the sky cabin is depressurized with no emergency oxygen supply unless they rapidly reach a lower altitude where they can breathe again the passengers will die [Music] Captain Bob seansteimer takes over command of the aircraft from first officer Mimi Tompkins he begins an emergency descent dropping 1200 meters per minute its speed now increasing to more than 500 kilometers an hour as the aircraft hurtles down passengers face a new Terror wreckage blocks their view of the cockpit and when the airplane split apart the nose dropped down by around one meter the plane is held together by just the narrow floor beams the floor was buckling up and you could tell the plane was spending in the middle Honda can't go forward far enough to see whether the pilots are alive or dead she tries to make contact via the intercom the wires are severed as she struggles forward to try to reach the cockpit she gets asked the one question she can't answer do we have a pilot I don't know do we have a pilot I do not know the terror of those on board Can Only Be Imagined as she asks the one question no airplane passenger wants to hear Michelle Honda was coming up and capping her hands and yelling and everyone's ear individually can you fly a plane I was like what you know get out of here is the is the pilot gone too you know because you couldn't tell if there was anybody up there how to fly oh first officer Mimi Tompkins tries to alert Air Traffic Control at Honolulu accordings from the cockpit voice recorder the Black Box analyzed later by accident investigators provide a dramatic record of exactly what took place the nearest place where they can try to land is the island of Maui Kahului airport lies between two volcanic mountains between them and safety lies a 3 000 meter high Summit to fly from the location of the explosion to the safety of Kahului airport the pilot needs to carefully maneuver avoiding this High Ground can the fragile aircraft survive the stresses of turning or if they ever reach the airport of Landing how can those on board survive Jane Sato Tomita is barely conscious Howard kitoka clutches her hand the only faint sign of life is once when Jane squeezes back I'm not exactly sure she's conscious but I did manage to squeeze her hand and she responded by squeezing my hand and we just held hands the simple squeeze of the hand at a time like that is very very emotional Mimi Tompkins is not getting through to Honolulu air traffic control so she switches to the frequency for the tower at Maui's Kahului Airport mohaw KS aircraft calling Tower say again at 148 three minutes after the explosion the crew make their first voice contact with the ground 243 C your position Maui from Landing to the quest the Emergency Equipment airport fire station we have an Aloha 737 five minutes out completely 20 miles pilot is declaring an emergency thank you mawitar in the station in the station we are identified emergency we have a 737 five minutes out 20 miles run away at this time Runway two Runway two foreign okay the equipment is on the field it's on the way at 3 000 meters flying west of the mountain the pilot slows the aircraft and as gently as possible Begins the right-hand turn towards Kahului passengers sense that someone must be in control of the aircraft I've had some trading as a pilot and we were at Wings level it wasn't in a dive or a role it was Wings level at that moment I thought we have a chance meanwhile those on the ground are unsure about what kind of Crisis they're facing it's a small airport an airliner in trouble will test the fire Crews experience for the air controller it's hard to hear the airplane at all just to verify again you're breaking up your call sign is two four three is that correct Aloha two four three plan straight ahead for Runway zero two I'll keep you advised of any wind change [Music] four minutes after the explosion at this lower altitude they're able to remove their oxygen masks with their speed having dropped to a little over 380 kilometers an hour the wind noise decreases just enough for them to hear one another we have a hole in the left side of the aircraft but the tower can't hear this new information they've lost contact with the aircraft their Transmissions aren't being picked up [Applause] three you're still up is this a radio malfunction or something worse Aloha 243 hearing nothing from the stricken aircraft the controller fears the worst Aloha 243 if you still here please I am affirmative Aloha 243 Roger I got your ident straight away cleared to land wind zero four zero communication is restored but the cruise ordeal is far from over Kevin do you Hate Now Mimi Tompkins tries to contact the cabin by intercom but there's no response well the crew doesn't really know what's going on behind them the airplane is still flying the captain now has to maintain his focus on flying that airplane but he doesn't know what real damage exists behind him Kellum will need assistance to evacuate right the coward Aloha 243. can you hear me on tower frequency Aloha 243 I hear you loud and clear go ahead he can't communicate with the flight attendant we'll need assistance with the passengers when we land okay you're going to need an ambulance is that correct affirmative during The Descent passengers experience moments of pure Terror the plan kept vibrating and shaking and the luggage racks were falling in and there was electrical wires flying around zapping and you know pretty much pandemonium but it looked like the plane was ripping in half and suddenly there's a new problem for the flight crew to handle just like annual reversion what dual reversion it feels to the pilot as though hydraulic systems like power steering in an automobile have now failed the airframe is under great stress they need to land as soon as possible there are so many thoughts that go through your head like one of my thoughts was uh man don't put this thing in the water I mean you have people around you are hurt unconscious I didn't want to have to say well I'm gonna try to save this guy first that guy first and whatever I and don't put it on the water the crew fear that critical wiring and control cables may have been severed have any of the airplanes vital Parts been damaged I try flying with the gear down all right you've got it there are lights to indicate whether or not the landing gear has safely deployed the main undercarriage has extended as normal but the light showing that the nose wheel has extended doesn't come on the last thing the pilot wanted to see especially with this airplane in the condition it was in was that he didn't have a nose gear because when the nose touch down on the runway it would have broken the airplane apart therefore breaking probably the fuel tanks apart which could lead to a very dramatic fire and explosion a second attempt to extend the landing gear the nose gear light is still out but the radio link is so bad the tower is still trying to assimilate the crisis unless to verify you do need an ambulance is that correct okay we'll have the ambulance on the way now Bob Sean's timer has to make a critical decision should he wait for confirmation that the undercarriage is down or land anyway the textbook in this case would tell the pilots to overfly the Airfield so that the air traffic controllers can look at the landing gear and give them a report whether it's up or down the pilots would then have to maneuver the airplane all the way around the Airfield come in for an approach and land with an airplane which might break apart at any moment that's out of the question Kellen we've got problems but we're going to land anyway even without a nose gear so they should be aware that we don't have a nose gear indication down 3. wind now zero five zero the Emergency Equipment is in place okay okay no no gear okay if you need any others Maui is not an ideal place to head for with the damaged airplane the islands exposed North Shore lies directly in the path of the trade winds and then they're Landing a lot of times and that particular approach Corridor is very windy because of the mountain on one side and mounting it either so it's a very bumpy approach but that's basically all we had [Music] any kind of in-flight turbulence that would have put great stresses on the front end of the airplane and there's a high probability that the cockpit would have separated from the rest of the fuselage catastrophic loss of the airplane and a loss of life with the Airfield now in sight Bob seansteimer has more critical decisions to make he begins to slow the aircraft for landing let's drive flat 15. an airplane's flaps are sliding panels at the back of the Wings to increase lift at low speeds they need to be extended during takeoff and Landing yeah for the back to five can you give me a v speed for a flat five Landing no two aircraft Landings are the same Pilots have to factor in many things the wind speed and direction passenger and fuel load and the length of the runway before them yeah but after we've touched down okay a complicated formula provides the v-ref indicating the safe landing speed even in a crisis like this Pilots have to reach for the manual extending the flaps fully will help act as a break once they touch down but to do it earlier could stress the airframe to Breaking Point what you have to remember is that the pilots weren't trained to handle a situation like this with the top of the airplane missing they became test pilots the aerodynamic effects of the airplane were drastically different than they were used to they really had to fly by the seat of their pants Aloha 243 wind now zero five zero using her flight manual the first officer makes the complicated calculation that will give their correct landing speed the safe speed for landing taking into account the length of kahului's Runway 2 is calculated to be 152 knots 282 kilometers an hour [Music] as the airplane slows it becomes much harder to control and so the pilot has to make another crucial call speeding up to keep control means he'll hit the runway faster than he should he gambles that the higher speed Landing is still the best option our approach speed I felt was hot I mean we were covered in hot I don't know don't ask me how many miles an hour it was because I don't know but from other Landings we were coming in Fairly hot crash rescue teams prepare themselves for a worst case scenario at high speed and without the nose gear a crash landing followed by a catastrophic fuel fire now seems inevitable under these conditions the lack of a nose gear could have been a death sentence for everybody aboard this aircraft a Boeing 737 with 95 people on board has suffered an explosive decompression near the Hawaiian island of Maui it's still Airborne but only just with 35 square meters of fuselage missing from the Aloha plane as they prepare for an emergency landing warning lights indicate that the forward landing gear has not deployed so the airplane will most likely Crash and Burn in the 12 horrifying minutes since the explosion some passengers are convinced they're not going to make it alive I thought it was going to go in the water and I was eaten by sharks and then we saw the mountain and I didn't think we were going to make it over it I just knew we were going to crash into that mountain and then when we could tell we could see the airport and then you know then I burned to death because the plane blew up when we when we hit the runway suddenly the news the pilots have been praying for the gear is done in phone call with command The Cure is now okay thanks Aloha 243 just for your information the gear appears down the gear appears down no on the ground the crew have had to make life or death decisions in the next few seconds they'll find out whether they're the right ones Michelle Honda cradles her injured colleague as the critical moment approaches and just Comfort one another in what may be their last moments are live a woman that was sitting next to me and her husband he was on the other side in the next row up and she was next to me and they were reaching their hands out and they were trying to touch fingers to say goodbye I was I was a really touching moment for me it was when I really knew I was gonna die because they were saying goodbye to each other what gave me the most Comfort was knowing that my wife and my kids knew what I felt that was great comfort I didn't need to tell him anything further that I love you or you know I worry about you because I felt that I had already said that though the forward undercarriage has extended the crew still can't be certain whether it is locked in place whether it'll collapse on Landing if it doesn't hold firm forty thousand kilos of airplane traveling at close to 320 kilometers an hour will smash nose down onto the tarmac okay Aloha 243 just cut it down where you are okay everything's fine the gear did it the fire trucks are on the way okay shut it down [Applause] in this extraordinary video captured moments after landing the amount of damage the airplane suffered is difficult to comprehend an emergency evacuation of passengers who escaped injury has just been completed some injured passengers have still to be helped from the plane how it flew for those 13 terrifying minutes seems astonishing Captain Bob schwarzheimer is thanked by passengers who just minutes before had expected to die tension is released all right such yes baby that's all I said Tyler did a tremendous job Patricia Aubry hugs her heroine Michelle Honda I was crying and of course everybody was traumatized looking at the plane and looking at the people bleeding and just I kept touching myself going I'm here I can't believe I'm still alive her last-minute impulse to switch seats saves her from injury maybe from Death something was telling me not to sit there because I didn't have a good reason to move you know my guardian angel was tapping me on the shoulder and telling me to move a final desperate head count by Michelle Honda confirms the crew's worst fears CV Lansing the veteran of 37 years flying for this Airline is missing a sea search begins in the area of ocean where the explosion took place neither body nor wreckage are found Jane Sato Tomita has started to recover seven passengers are seriously hurt the worst injury a skull fracture but how have the rest survived at the moment of decompression it's just their seat belts which made the difference between life and death the whole thing come apart and I personally thought we were all gone faster I'll enter seat belts faster but most of us evidently or would have lost a lot more but there's something else at the most critical moment Maui's notorious high winds died away I was amazed to see in front of the fuselage missing what was so funny about the whole thing is that when he came in had no win I mean I believe you did had that win the aircraft wouldn't have made it they would have split into two pieces and it's a miracle it's very much a miracle this is one of the most remarkable flying events in history no airplane has ever landed with this amount of damage the only thing that was holding the forward section cockpit to the rest of the fuselage were the floor beams basically they were hanging by a thread from a close study of the fuselage crash investigators try to determine how the airplane structure remained in one piece the critical Factor proves to be the precise location of the explosion the thing that saved them was that because the damage was across the top of the airplane as the nose tried to bend down these members through here are in tension and it kept them in line and kept them straight so even though it was almost ready to break off the structure was still strong enough here to keep it together if this damage had been along the bottom and the nose is trying to bend down this way the structure would have been this similar structure would have been in compression and it would have buckled and the nose would have certainly come off so it was fortunate that the damage was across the top how does the roof of a jet airliner simply Blow Away the U.S national Transportation safety board NTSB is tasked with discovering what happened investigators pull the airplane's records something like an automobile service history and suspicion Falls right away on the airplane itself the best evidence for what happened the missing fuselage section is now lying at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean but by carefully piecing together the clues they do have investigators hope to solve one of the most spectacular accidents of all time in the 38 years since its launch in 1967 more than 5737s were sold somewhere in the world a 737 takes off every five seconds the accident airplane was number 152 of the production line delivered in May 1969. the airplane was designed for a 20-year service life and 75 000 flights this one had exceeded that number though many were of short duration its fuselage was under constant stress because of pressurization the fuselage of the airplane is actually breathing it expands and contracts depending on altitude when it's on the ground it's in a contracted status when it's at altitude 24 000 feet the fuselage expands so the airplane is constantly cycling that's pressurization that will weaken the structure over a long period of time and given the history of this airplane being a very high cycle airplane that probably had something to do with weakening the structure of the fuselage with thousands of 737s taking to the skies each day investigators need to be certain what made this one burst apart an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 bursts apart in mid-air over Hawaii after 13 extraordinary minutes in the air it makes an emergency landing on the island of Maui investigators need to discover what caused the spectacular incident in Washington DC Jim Wildey is one of the NTSB team who worked the case his expertise as a metallurgist proves crucial I got a call about two in the morning in the middle of the night for my boss and there had been an accident in Hawaii they were putting the team together and I popped on a plane and went to Hawaii he takes samples from the remaining fuselage and back in the lab discovers something barely visible to the naked eye hairline cracks like this beside the holes where rivets had been figuring out how those cracks came to be there means Going Back to Basics to the way the Boeing 737 was put together airplanes are built from many separate panels where they overlap they're bonded together by a powerful adhesive known as epoxy rivets hold the panels tied together while the epoxy sets hard on the Aloha airplane there's Telltale discoloration inside the overlapping joints here is the vital clue you can see now where the dark material is the epoxy that was used to bond the two layers of the lap joint together the white material you see here is corrosion damage of the aluminum fuselage skin so the original intent was the distress that's trying to pull one skin away from the other skin piece the stresses would go through the bonding and not through the rivets of course as this thing becomes disbonded now the rivets themselves are loaded and especially this top row of rivets and this is the row of rivets we think that had the fatigue cracking in it that led to the eventual opening of the roof structure on the Aloha 737 airplane the files revealed a Boeing warned Airlines including Aloha of problems with some early 737s if the epoxy isn't applied at exactly the right temperature if the panels have moisture or dirt on them the bonding can fail in warnings and service bulletins some issued over 15 years earlier Boeing spells out the danger the Hawaii climate with humid and salt-laden air helps corrosion to occur but instead of grounding airplanes for a nose-to-tail examination Aloha has Inspectors make occasional checks often at night when those on duty are least alert working under artificial light those tiny cracks Escape detection these cracks go unrepaired and now you have an airplane that is a ticking time bomb there are other problems Boeing service bulletins and what are called airworthiness directives issued by the Federal Aviation Administration are often difficult to understand airworthiness directives are very complex and read like a legal document Aloha needed to have someone who could read that document and interpret it into plain English for the mechanics the wrench Turners that never happened an airplane that has been worked so hard serviced by mechanics who don't fully understand the briefings is a recipe for disaster investigators now believe they know why the airplane burst open but they don't yet know how I was flying back from Hawaii to Los Angeles and while I was in the in the air I got a message that that we needed to interview this passenger who had apparently seen a crack as she was getting on the accident flight you saw something as you got on this airplane which you pointed out to your roommate Cynthia Johnson yeah Cynthia talk me through it what did you say what I saw was to the right of the door where the paint was white well it was a crack it was like not a whole exactly but the metal on top had come away from the metal below I was going to tell the flight attendant you know but they were busy and we had to take our seats oh yeah and you figured you know they know what they're doing it's their airplane I didn't want to make a fuss or anything no no no no absolutely the witness saw cracking in this area and we found fatigue cracking back in here so this is the line where the fatigue cracking joined up one piece came down this way and folded off and the other piece went across the top and came off to the right side but something still doesn't make sense Boeing designed the 737 and other rivets aircraft so that this should never happen every 10 inches along the airplane are what are called Tear straps inside the fuselage to strengthen it if a tear begins it should only reach the next strap before shooting off at a 90 degree angle though there's a hole in the aircraft it acts like a safety valve the purpose of the tear strip is to confine any kind of rip or tear in the fuselage skin to a 10 inch square basically if you allow it to propagate Beyond this 10 inch square you could then compromise larger sections of fuselage and cause a blowout the 10 inch square allows a controlled decompression and confines any structural damage to a very small area so why has the safety valve failed here the NTSB believed there were so many cracks in the fuselage that they simply joined together running right through the tear straps the Aloha airplane was kind of unique in a couple of ways the way it was operated was with very short flights so you had large numbers of these pressurization cycles and stress was going on and off on these rivet locations and secondly with the disc bonding all this stress is now going through the rivets and that led to the linking up of these cracks and then the roof coming off the airplane but is that the final answer on what happened to flight 243 a new Theory claims to shed fresh light on those dramatic events Matt Austin is an engineer who lives in Honolulu the story of flight 243 both appalls and fascinates him uh flew very regularly on Aloha Airlines and I've been on that plane about a week before it actually lost the roof you could tell that something was loose in the airplane it's just like when you're in an old car and you hit a bump you can hear the rattles in it that you won't hear in a new aircraft in this case when the aircraft landed there would be noises and rattles you wouldn't hear on a newer aircraft he begins his own investigation scrutinizing the 4 000 pages of evidence and photographs gathered during the official inquiry I am an expert in explosion Dynamics and how pressure vessels explode what causes them to explode which way the cracks run as they're coming apart in the case of the Aloha accident the main focus from the aeronautical industry was they were looking at as an airplane structural failure whereas I analyzed it from the point of view of a pressure vessel failure as he reviews the evidence one question keeps recurring why is CB Lansing sucked out of the aircraft and not her colleague Jane Sato Tomita Jane was further forward than CB at The crucial moment Jane was at row two CB was at row five the NTSB believes the roof separation began near Row three passenger testimony gathered shortly after the incident suggests that CB Lansing was sucked upwards and to the left but not forward I was on the aisle on the right so I look up for my magazine I see a pair of legs go up and out on the left just back a first class from where I was if the nose was 12 this is at 11. yeah forensic evidence suggests another possible scenario Michael Sweet an ex-cop is now a specialist in blood spatter analysis by studying blood stains at crime scenes he can help put a killer behind bars or free the innocent he examines official photographs of the 737 fuselage this is a large photograph of the left side of the airplane the front would be in this location there's a what we suspect to be a blood stain pattern on the right beside the window right here could this blood stain be where CB lansing's head impacted with the outside of the fuselage the analyst believes so well the fact that there are blood stains on the side of this airplane so just to me that the blood Source in this case was momentarily trapped when it came into contact with the side of the airplane if the flight attendant in this case was ejected outside of a gaping hole I would expect her to disappear almost immediately and not leave any blood stains on the side of the airplane this analysis suggests only that she was trapped but without explaining how or why Matt Austin believes he has the answer on April 28 1988 a Boeing 737 owned by Aloha Airlines in Hawaii suffers an explosive decompression in mid-air amazingly it lands safely with the loss of one crew member investigators blame metal fatigue due to poor maintenance but a new and controversial theory has emerged challenging at least part of the chain of events what if a safety hole has opened up as it was designed to do but directly above the flight attendant Matt Austin believes CB Lansing is sucked into the safety hole momentarily blocking it all of the air that's trying to escape has no place to go so it builds up a huge pressure spike and that's what blew the roof off the top of the airplane what he's describing is known as a fluid hammer in scientific terms air is fluid as is water here's a simple demonstration in a bathtub the water is in fact escaping through the drain as we move the drain plug back down towards the hole it will immediately slam shut and create a force which is simple example of a fluid hair he believes this phenomenon on a giant scale caused the accident it's very tragic but if we don't look at the forensic evidence that's left then we won't understand exactly what caused the explosive decompression and possibly prevent the future occurrence the NTSB say that the fluid Hammer theory is valid scientifically but for them the evidence still points to something simpler a virtually simultaneous failure in the airplane's many weak spots the safety board's investigations are never really closed and we always would take into account any new information that comes out I believe in the case of the Aloha accident we have we have not changed our probable cause and we still are sticking with the probable cause as we determined back in 1988. [Music] since the crucial physical evidence was never found what happened on board at the precise moment of explosion will probably never be known Aloha Airlines management took most of the blame for their poor maintenance regime the NTSB demanded that the Federal Aviation Administration do a much better job in forcing maintenance standards Boeing had already improved their manufacturing process to prevent the adhesive becoming so easily contaminated what happened on flight 243 made flying safer soon after Congress passed the aviation Safety Research act this accident had a very profound effect on the aviation industry and the way we look at aging airplanes old aircraft we changed the way we monitor how they age the way we inspect them and of course now how we manufacture them we use different processes this was a very critical accident for aviation history those 13 terrifying minutes also left their impact on the survivors of flight 243 I had to go through a healing process I took for your flying classes and the all saying of you fall off a horse and you get back on it is very accurate but it's a lot tougher to actually do it [Music] Patricia Aubry had to find a way of dealing with the memories also her way was to revisit the same piece of airspace where the terror unfolded hardco flying with my psychologist you go through what they call desensitization where you confront your fear and you just do it so many times that you can do it without having a bad reaction before that happened if something bad happened to me I'd go I hate life but I don't hate life I can deal with it bring it on I'll take care of it I'd much rather be alive there's one further Legacy of that fateful day the ocean never did surrender the body of CB Lansing instead a memorial garden honoring the veteran flight attendant was planted at Honolulu airport beneath the Big Hawaiian sky where she spent the better part of her life and where it was so suddenly ended foreign

Channel: Mayday: Air Disaster

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Keywords: AF8969 incident coverage, Air Emergency incidents, Airplane crash reconstruction, Airplane safety evaluation, Aviation incident discussion, Cockpit experience, Crash victim family members, Evidence piecing together, Flight danger investigation, Flight disaster scrutiny, Flight safety analysis, High-profile air disasters, Major accident causes, Mayday Air Disaster reviews, Mayday Investigation series, Mayday: Air Disaster, Passenger safety examination, Plane emergency landing

Id: NbeJRs7PDPk

Length: 50min 2sec (3002 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 20 2023