| sammyg2 |
04-18-2018 02:18 PM |
United airlines flight 811, February 1989:
I remember the pilot offering to fly it back for repairs even with the giant hole in it's side (after they repaired the engines).
The plane was repaired and put back in service, until it went into storage in the 2000.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1524089948.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1524089948.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1524089948.jpg
Quote:
Flight 811 took off from Honolulu International Airport at 01:52 local time, with 337 passengers and 18 crew members on board.
During the climb, the crew made preparations to detour around thunderstorms along the aircraft's track; the Captain anticipated turbulence and kept the passenger seatbelt sign lit.
The plane had been flying for 17 minutes, as it was passing from 22,000 feet (6,700 m) to 23,000 feet (7,000 m), when the flight crew heard a loud "thump" which shook the aircraft.
A second and a half later, the forward cargo door blew off. The door swung out with such force that it passed its normal stop and slammed into the side of the fuselage, bursting the fuselage open. Pressure differentials and aerodynamic forces caused the cabin floor to cave in, and 10 seats (G and H of rows 8 through 12) were ejected from the cabin. All 8 passengers seated in these locations were killed (seats 8G and 12G were unoccupied), as was the passenger in seat 9F.
A gaping hole was left in the aircraft, through which a flight attendant in the business-class cabin was almost blown out of the aircraft. Passengers and crew members saw her clinging to a seat leg and were able to pull her back inside the cabin, although she was severely injured. Senior flight attendant Laura Brentlinger hung on to the steps leading to the upper deck, and was dangling from them when the decompression occurred.
The pilots initially believed that a bomb had gone off inside the airplane, as this accident happened just two months after Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland. They began an emergency descent in order to reach an altitude where the air was breathable, while also performing a 180-degree left turn to fly back to Honolulu.
The explosion damaged components of the on-board emergency oxygen supply system, as it was primarily located in the forward cargo sidewall area, just aft of the cargo door.
The debris ejected from the airplane during the explosive decompression damaged the Number 3 and 4 engines.
Engine 3 was experiencing heavy vibration, no N1 reading, and a low EGT and EPR, so the crew shut it down.
At 02:20, an emergency was declared and the crew began dumping fuel to reduce the aircraft's landing weight.
The N1 reading of engine number 4 soon fell to almost zero, its EGT reading was high, and it was emitting flames, so they shut it down as well.
Some of the explosively ejected debris damaged the right wing's leading edge, dented the horizontal stabilizer on that side, and damaged the vertical stabilizer.
During the descent, Captain Cronin ordered Flight Engineer Thomas to tell the flight attendants to prepare for an emergency landing, but Thomas was unable to contact them through the intercom. He asked the captain for permission to go down to find out what was happening, and Cronin agreed. Thomas saw severe damage immediately upon leaving the cockpit; the aircraft's skin was peeled off in some areas on the upper deck, revealing the frames and stringers. As he went down to the lower deck, the magnitude of the damage became apparent as he saw the large hole in the side of the cabin. Thomas returned to the cockpit and reported that a large section of fuselage was open aft of the Number 1 exit door. He concluded that it was probably a bomb and that, considering the damage, it would be unwise to exceed the airplane's stall speed by more than a small margin.
As the airplane neared the airport, the landing gear was extended. The flaps could only be partially deployed as a result of damage sustained following the decompression.
This necessitated a higher than normal landing speed of around 190–200 knots (350–370 km/h).
Captain Cronin was able to bring the plane to a halt, without overrunning the runway. 14 minutes had elapsed since the emergency was declared. All the remaining passengers and flight attendants exited the plane in less than 45 seconds. Every flight attendant suffered some injury during the evacuation, ranging from scratches to a dislocated shoulder.
Despite extensive air and sea searches, no remains were found at sea of the nine victims lost in flight.
Multiple small body fragments and pieces of clothing were found in the Number 3 engine, indicating that at least one victim was ejected from the fuselage into the front of the engine, but it was not known whether the fragments were from one or more victims.
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