"In 1990, a panel of the windscreen on British Airways Flight 5390 fell out at 17k feet, causing the cockpit to decompress & its captain to be sucked halfway out of the aircraft. The crew held onto him for more than 20 minutes as the copilot made an emergency landing. The pilot made a full recovery.""If I remember correctly, the accident happened because someone eyeballed the screws when they replaced the window, and they were like a millimeter off."Pretty close. The screws used to secure the windshield were different lengths for different areas. Instead of using a template to know where each screw came out of or referring to the IPC (illustrated parts catalog) they just put the screws in a pile and slammed them back in without ever knowing if the screws were actually grabbing enough threads on the nutplates."
Comments from the discussion thread at the nevertellmetheodds subreddit. I don't have a link to a primary source.
The embedded photos are not from the incident, but rather from a National Geographic reconstruction of the incident. Hat tip to reader Charlie for doing the detective work.
Where did these photos come from? Hard to believe even if someone had a camera they would take the time to use it under the circustances. And even if they did how did they get that angle on the scenes? this was before selfie cellphone cameras so the interior shot seems unlikely. And the exterior shot seems unlikely too. And they don't seem self consistentent since it is said he was held by the belt no the ankles. Anyone holding his ankles in the window would be frost bitten not just on the hands but the face making that likely impossible to maintain. I'm thinking these must be from some movie recreation or something.
ReplyDeleteThese are not photos of the actual incident. They are taken from a National Geographic recreation http://home.bt.com/news/on-this-day/june-10-1990-miracle-of-ba-flight-5390-as-captain-is-sucked-out-of-the-cockpit-and-survives-11363985642960
ReplyDeleteYou can get a clue that this was the case for the following improbable details. 1. he was held onto by his belt not his ankles. 2. the camera angle from inside the cockpit seems unlikely as no one could be in that location, selfie cell phones did not exist in 1990, and who would bother to take pictures at a time like that when they could be helping hold the captain. 3. the outside picture seems even more improbable as a photo opportuinity 4. the person shown in the photos would have frostbitten hands and face if they were really that outside the cockpit. 5. the pilot would have an airmask on in such a situation, and there would be all sorts of shit flying about, not a neatly pressed shirt and tie. (look at their ties)
Also one more wrong detail. The missing window in the photos is not the correct one. You can compare those photos to the real photo of the broken window here http://home.bt.com/news/on-this-day/june-10-1990-miracle-of-ba-flight-5390-as-captain-is-sucked-out-of-the-cockpit-and-survives-11363985642960
ReplyDeleteThank you for that info, charlie. I also wondered about who took the photos, but was too busy/lazy to look it up this morning.
DeleteText amended.
WOAH! Imagine if that happened now, the footage would go viral within a day, multiple lawsuits would be filed (maybe they were?) and that pilot would be able to make a living appearing on tv shows. Wonder if he's still alive?
ReplyDeleteThe screw design is what made me shake my head. Why in the world wouldn't you standardize the length of the screws/holes to the size of the largest one needeed? That way, it wouldn't matter which screw went where on the windshield.
ReplyDeleteIt was too precious by half...and apparently almost lost someone their life.
I agree, when I worked in industry I had standards as to (in our case size not length) what screws I could use in a design "because the guys on the floor can't handle anything smaller than a #8.
DeleteThat Nat Geo recreation would make for a pretty good paint scheme.
ReplyDeleteI'd always had it that defenestration was an act perpetrated by another person, such as when the CIA orchestrated a regime change (and this was a favored outcome for them)- they tossed folks out the window! More recently, we've seen this in Russia, where outspoken heads of nursing or doctor cadres have wound up many floors downstairs, via the balcony, after having made critical or disparaging remarks about how the Covid pandemic was being mis-managed.
ReplyDelete