O.k., hmm... that's pretty high up in the climb-out. Pretty low outside pressure up there, and it was probably darn near at cruise speed.

The hostility of the environment at 30K feet at 300 plus knots cannot be overstated.

Rapid decompression is not a pretty sight.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/da...310357V2_b.jpg

I guess that is why they make the passenger windows small. I suppose if you are small enough it is possible to get sucked out. Another reason to keep seatbelts on and buckled all the time.

Heart attack. Damn. God be with the deceased and all those who cared for them.

I actually enjoy flying (getting in and out of the airport... not so much)

However I have to admit looking out the window at those engines and all those sharp metal bits spinning at high RPM makes me a little nervous.

Uh, no - the size of the window is purely a structural consideration. Like I said earlier, even a football lineman will get blown out through that window. Quite easily. Won't be pretty, but he will "fit".

For sure. I keep mine on the entire ride.

My dad talked of a flight where a stewardess pushing her cart along as they hit turbulence. She and the cart bounced off of the ceiling, onto other loose passengers and off of the ceiling again. Dad was a pilot and wore his seatbelt if he was sitting down. He was lucky none of the other passengers landed on him. That was on a Pan-Am flight so it has been a while.

Looks like it happened 15+ minutes after departure. They were already at FL320 (on their way to FL390), so it would have been at or near max pressure differential. Probably somewhere between 7-8 PSI, which would be the equivalent of something like 7,000-8,000 ft. "cabin" altitude.

This.

What is the size of one of those windows? Say 16" X 9"? So ignoring the curvature around the corners - 16X9=144 square inches.

144 X 7 psi = 1,008 lbs of force! 1/2 ton pushing a person through that window!

Delta P will be around 8psi at 32000 feet (4psia). They keep the plane pressurized to the same as 6000 feet (12psia)

Hawaiian Air

Also a 737 btw.

What happened is not supposed to happen. Turbofan and turbojet manufacturers spend a lot of time and money designing and testing to prevent what is called a rotorburst, which is a catastrophic engine failure that could in theory throw shrapnel towards the fuselage. The engine casing must show that it can wholly contain a catastrophic engine failure by test, there are some pretty cool videos on YouTube of grenading turbofans. Critical flight systems and in many cases the fuselage are also required to be reinforced in this area of the aircraft. I'll be very curious to hear the root cause, which may take months to determine.

Hawaiian Air 737 (above) was a unique situation...

Flights are very short, island to island, so a lot more take-offs and landings per hour of flight than a 'normal' plane. They calculate age of planes by hours flown partially, but did not really factor in the large increase in landings and takeoffs (pressurizing / unpressurizing) as extra wear on the airframe.

Salt air environment: made the crack, when it formed, propagate faster.

A passenger on that plane saw a crack in the skin by the entry door when they boarded bud did not say anything. That's where it failed; it just peeled off like a scab.

I think only a stew standing in the aisle was lost, another almost; she grabbed the arm of a seat and passengers held onto her.


This was unknown until the British Comet jets started flying commercially in the 50's... they started falling apart in the sky after only 1,000 hours or so... do a search... scary.

According to what I just found, Southwest uses GE's CFM56 engine.

The Comet was actually due to the square windows causing stress concentrations leading to accelerated metal fatigue and eventual structural failure. Which is why planes don't have square windows.:)

Yes... doubly sad as many Brit planes, turboprops, piston, had oval windows and round corners before then, but not the Comet...
But that was not a known problem then.

I like the pilot.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5627597/Pictured-Hero-pilot-safely-landed-Southwest-flight.html