While flying, the window disappeared and the captain was sucked out...

At 7:20 in the morning, the plane took off as usual and climbed steadily to the cruising altitude. The passengers started the holiday mode, looking forward to the trip to Spain, and the crew began to provide food and beverage service for everyone.

Flight attendant Nigel Ogden walked into the cockpit and asked the pilot if he wanted some tea. Just as he put his hand on the door handle to exit the cockpit, there was a loud bang and the door blew off his hand.

Nigel turned around and found that the front windshield of the cockpit was gone. At the same time, he could only see the legs of Captain Timothy Lancaster - the captain's legs were stuck on the flight controls and his upper body was out of the window.

TV series Mayday: Air Disaster

Nigel immediately rushed over and hugged the captain's waist tightly.

The captain's shirt is also torn | Retrontario

No matter what, don't let go

The cabin was in chaos. The loss of the windshield caused an explosive decompression, the entire cabin was filled with condensation and fog, the captain's legs were stuck on the flight controls, the autopilot was broken, the cockpit door was pressed against the throttle control... The plane began to descend rapidly through a busy airspace.

As the plane ascends, the air pressure outside decreases, but the air pressure inside the cabin needs to be maintained at a stable level. The aircraft engine can draw in the air outside, heat it, compress it, and then inject it into the fuselage, cool it and enter the cabin, and finally discharge it from the outflow valve. | Mayday: Air Disaster

Perhaps because the captain was yanked out of his seat, the control column was pushed forward, and the plane spiraled down rapidly. Everything on the plane began to fly around, even an oxygen cylinder bolted in place by a bolt flew up, "almost knocking my head off," flight attendant Nigel later recalled.

The plane suddenly lost control | Mayday: Air Disaster

He held onto the captain, but his arms felt weaker and weaker. The air pressure made the captain very heavy, and the low temperature at high altitudes made Nigel's arms colder and colder. He felt that his arms were losing sensation and that he was about to be sucked away. The captain's body was sliding out. "I thought I was going to lose him," Nigel said afterwards.

Fortunately, other flight attendants arrived in time, grabbed Nigel's belt to prevent him from sliding forward further, and then wrapped the shoulder straps of the captain's seat around him. When Nigel was about to collapse, the colleagues who arrived tied themselves to the third pilot seat, hooked the captain's feet behind the captain's seat, and then grabbed his ankles. Everyone was unable to pull the captain back to the cockpit, and three-quarters of the captain's body was outside.

Air pressure made the pilot so heavy that he couldn't be pulled back | Mayday: Air Disaster

The strong wind at about minus 20 degrees Celsius hit the captain's body violently, and the captain's head hit the fuselage and side windshield many times. The flight attendants saw the captain's head bleeding and his long arms flying in the air. What scared Nigel the most was that the captain's eyes were wide open - "he wouldn't blink", Nigel thought the captain was dead.

However, they had to continue to hold on to the captain tightly because it also concerned the lives of the 81 passengers on board. Once they let go, the flying captain might get stuck on the wing or fly into the engine.

Passengers were in a state of panic over the unknown. Some saw the captain stuck in the window, while others cried and prayed, thinking the plane was about to crash | Mayday: Air Disaster

Flight attendant John removed the cockpit door that had exploded onto the controls and freed the captain's legs from the controls. First Officer Alistair Atchinson reactivated the autopilot.

Through the in-flight broadcast, he told passengers that the plane's windshield was broken and reminded everyone to prepare for an emergency landing.

Fortunately, the co-pilot was wearing his seatbelt when the windshield disappeared. Pictured is the pilot's five-point seatbelt | aerosavvyMayday! Mayday! Mayday!

The captain and several flight attendants were old colleagues who had worked together for a long time, while the co-pilot that day, Alistair, was working with everyone for the first time.

Now, on this plane, which is working for the first time, he must fly alone, while avoiding a mid-air collision and descending the plane as quickly as possible to an altitude with sufficient oxygen and safe air pressure.

All the flight manuals and charts in the cockpit were blown away, and Alistair could only rely on his memory to deal with the crisis. While trying to control the plane, he called for help - shouting the emergency distress signal "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!" However, due to the strong wind noise, he could not hear the voice of air traffic control at all, and communication was very difficult.

"Mayday" is an international emergency distress signal that must be shouted three times. It has nothing to do with Mayday, but is derived from the French venez m'aider (come to the rescue). | Mayday: Air Disaster

With his excellent skills, he quickly descended the plane to an altitude of more than 3,000 meters and reduced the speed of the plane to about 300 kilometers per hour. The decrease in altitude also allowed him to hear the instructions from the ground control clearly. After finally hearing the permission and instructions from the air traffic control personnel, he prepared to make an emergency landing at Southampton Airport.

Originally he wanted the runway to be 2,500 meters long because the plane had a large fuel load and could not reduce its weight by dumping fuel. Therefore, it might have a tire burst or run off the runway during an emergency landing. However, the longest runway the airport could provide was only 1,800 meters.

Nevertheless, Alistair landed perfectly. At 7.55am on June 10, 1990, British Airways Flight 5390 landed smoothly and came to rest three quarters of the way down the runway.

This was also Alistair's first time flying to Southampton Airport, and the air traffic controller on the ground kept guiding him until he saw the runway. | Mayday: Air Disaster

Miraculous Survival

After landing, Nigel, the flight attendant who had held the captain, was relieved, but he was also seriously injured - frostbitten face, cut arms and dislocated shoulders. When all the passengers got off the plane safely, he went to check on the rescued captain and heard the captain say, "I want to eat."

Nigel couldn't help but smile bitterly, walked out and shouted to everyone: "He's still alive!" Then he cried until his eyes were swollen.

Flight attendant Nigel Ogden was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | Mayday: Air Disaster

The rescued captain was lying on a stretcher, covered in blood. To many people's surprise, he only suffered frostbite, abrasions and fractures in his thumb, arm and wrist.

The miraculously surviving pilot recalled the entire ordeal and said that the feeling that impressed him the most was that he couldn't breathe because he was facing the airflow. Later, he tried to turn around and look back to breathe. He only remembered that he could see the tail of the plane and the plane engine at that time... and he almost didn't know many things that happened afterwards.

The rescued captain and two flight attendants | Mayday: Air Disaster

The accident investigation department's findings showed that the maintenance personnel used the wrong screws when replacing the window. Many of the screws on the windshield were too small in diameter, and even those with the correct diameter were too short. A series of other sloppy operations also led to the error not being discovered in time.

The middle screw is the wrong size, it's too small | Air Accidents Investigation Branch, Department for Transport, UK

"I watched the windshield leave the fuselage, and then it disappeared into the distance like a bullet," the captain recalled later. Then there was a huge explosion, and he felt himself flying.

The pilot survived the disaster but was not deterred. Five months later, he was flying the same plane again. He spent the rest of his career in the cockpit and in the air until his retirement.

After landing, blood stains left by the captain were visible on the plane | Mayday: Air Disaster

On May 14, 2018, a similar accident occurred on Sichuan Airlines Flight 3U 8633. About 40 minutes after takeoff, when the plane was flying at an altitude of about 9,800 meters, the front windshield of the right seat in the cockpit suddenly broke and fell off, the plane decompressed rapidly in an instant, and half of the co-pilot's body flew out and hung on the window.

Captain Liu Chuanjian overcame various difficulties including low temperature, strong winds, instrument failure and poor communications, and finally landed the plane safely at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport.

References

[1] This is your captain screaming. (2005, February 05). The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/world/this-is-your-captain-screaming-20050205-gdkmtm.html

[2] The. (1990). 4 Miles Over Britain Pilot Is Sucked Out; Crew Holds On Tight. NY Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/11/world/4-miles-over-britain-pilot-is-sucked-out-crew-holds-on-tight.html

[3] Gorgan, E. (2023). Flight 5390: The Harrowing Story of the Pilot Who Got Sucked Out of the Cockpit Window. autoevolution.

[4] Sweeney, L. (2023). Forget delays and lost luggage — the British Airways pilot who got sucked out of the windscreen is the ultimate travel nightmare. ABC News. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-15/ba5390-pilot-sucked-out-windscreen-the-ultimate-nightmare/101813438

[5] Bywater, T. (2022). Image of pilot hanging out window captures heroic story 30 years on. NZ Herald. Retrieved from https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/image-of-pilot-hanging-out-window-captures-heroic-story-30-years-on/GR2HBBCBUGMOTA7MEYPI7UR54A

[6] Disaster, MA (2022, April 18). The Captain That Got Stuck Outside A Plane at 17,000 Feet! | FULL EPISODE | Mayday: Air Disaster. Youtube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd_rnao1dlw

[7] Thornhill, T. (2017). Flier in Chile discovers frame around window is loose. Mail Online. Retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-5111899/Flier-shocked-frame-window-loose.html

[8] 5.14 Sichuan Airlines flight diverted to Chengdu_Baidu Encyclopedia. (2023, August 24). Retrieved from https://baike.baidu.com/item/5%C2%B714%E5%B7%9D%E8%88%AA%E8%88%AA%E7%8F%AD%E5%A4%87%E9%99%8D%E6%88%90%E9%83%BD%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6/22585196

Planning and production

Source: Bringing Science Home

Author: Cloud, editor of Everything Magazine

Review丨Editor of Skin Magazine

Editor: Yang Yaping

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