Aloha Airlines Flight 243

Sudden pressure drop

The Aloha Airlines Flight 243 a Boeing 737-200 was scheduled to fly on April 28, 1988 by Hilo (Big Iceland ) to Honolulu (Oahu ) in Hawaii. After the climb in the forward fuselage broke off a piece area of the upper hull. It came to a sudden decompression of the cabin, which resulted in 65 injured passengers and a flight attendant was killed. Despite the severe damage to the aircraft, the pilots were able to land the plane safely at Kahului Airport on Maui.

Expiration

The aircraft with registration number N73711 started at 13:25 clock (HST). There were 90 passengers and five crew members on board. During takeoff and climb, no special events were noted.

As the plane against 13:48 clock its normal cruising altitude of 24,000 ft ( about 7,300 m ) reached, tore up a small part of the upper hull. In the following minutes, this crack enlarged to such an extent that it led to a complete replacement of the cabin ceiling in the area between the cockpit and the wing leading edge.

The replacement of the entire cabin ceiling led to a sudden decompression. Flight attendant Clarabelle Lansing was located at the level of the series and was pulled after five passenger reports by the suction from the plane - her body was not found until today. Flight attendant Jane Sato - Tomita was in front in the cabin - she was injured by flying debris and knocked to the ground, where she was detained by passengers until the end of the flight. Flight attendant Michelle Honda was located between row 15 and 16 - despite her injuries she was able to move between the rows to calm the passengers and prepare for ditching.

The gaps in the ceiling led to further technical problems. The passengers had no emergency oxygen because it was inoperable due to the accident at this aircraft type. Also, the wireless technology in the cockpit did not work completely and an indication lamp of the landing gear had failed. The emergency landing took place at the Kahului Airport on runway 02 at 13:58 clock. The airport was not prepared at that time for a disaster of this kind - due to inadequate ambulance the adjacent tourism company Akamai Tours were radioed to help out with as many of their 15 minibuses to transport the injured to hospital. Among the 90 passengers there were seven seriously injured and 57 slightly injured. There was one death.

Injury

After the incident, a full investigation was begun by the National Transportation Safety Board. The cause of fatigue in combination with corrosion ( salt water environment ) was found. The bonding of the metal joints was apparently insufficient, thus water could penetrate into the gaps and accelerate corrosion. The increase in volume of the corroded materials loaded the riveted joints in addition. A key role for the accident played the age of the aircraft, as it was 19 years old and had also completed as a short -haul aircraft almost 90,000 flights with a total of nearly 35,500 flight hours. Since some Aloha airline routes only go a short distance, was reached (approx. 0.5 bar ) is not on any of these flights the maximum differential pressure of 7.5 psi. Thus, the number of complete pressure build - cycles was significantly less than 90,000.

As a consequence, took all the major American airlines their oldest aircraft from service and maintenance stricter controls were introduced. In addition, research has been intensified to material fatigue on aircraft.

Both the pilot Robert Schorn Theimer (2005 retired ) as well as his co-pilot Madeline Tompkins remained at Aloha Airlines.

The incident was filmed and released in 1990 in Germany as a " disaster flight 243 ".

In the first episode of the third season of the Canadian documentary series Mayday - Alarm in the cockpit of the accident was filmed as Hanging by a thread in the English language and as a Hanging by a Thread in German. In re-enactments, animation and interviews with survivors and investigators reported on the preparations, the process and the backgrounds of the flight.

Alternative Accident Statement

Matt Austin, an engineer specializing in the pressure vessel, developed an alternative explanation accident because he is of the opinion that fatigue cracks can not cause this type of damage alone. In the case of cracking is likely type of construction ( stop by reinforcements cracks or redirect ) to replace not as big a piece of the fuselage, but trained only be about 25x25cm big hole does not affect the structural integrity of the hull and only leads to a pressure drop. In the opinion of Matt Austin is also exactly this happened, but the flight attendant CB was Lansing by the explosive pressure drop (where the air escaped with about 1000km / h through the large hole 25x25cm ) pulled into the hole and " stuffy " this. This created a huge surge pressure (also called water hammer ) then the hull plating tore off a large area. This hypothesis is supported by one hand traces of blood on the outside of the aircraft fuselage as well as statements of survivors, the NTSB took note of this hypothesis, however, remained in your Original Declaration.

Similar incidents

• United Airlines Flight 811 - Explosive Decompression
• American Airlines Flight 96 - Failure of cargo hatch
• Pan Am Flight 125 - Failure of cargo hatch
• British Airways Flight 5390 - partial loss of the cockpit glazing, resulting in the decompression
• Japan Airlines Flight 123 - Explosive Decompression by defective pressure bulkhead at the rear
• Turkish Airlines Flight 981 - Explosive decompression caused by failure of a cargo hatch on a DC - 10 due to improper closure with subsequent crash