Southwest - Suck out!

[Gogar]

Originally Posted by David

Gotta wonder if she had her seat belt on?

I imagine she could have had it on and still easily had her arms and head out the window.

I also bet that if she -didn't have it on she would've gone ahead and been all the way out the window, as Higgins has mentioned.

[WPOZZZ]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Rapid decompression is not a pretty sight.

Originally Posted by red-beard

Hawaiian Air

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

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 http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/993911-southwest-suck-out-4.htmlYouTube 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.

Originally Posted by tcar

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.

That was actually an Aloha Airlines flight, not Hawaiian. A flilght attendant did get sucked out of that plane, and amazingly, was the only casualty.

RIP CB Lansing.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Eric Coffey

+1 on all.

The stand out IMO was approach ATC. That guy was ON IT. Nicely done sir.

And well done Capt. for getting down and finding a suitable runway ASAP. That was engine failure @ FL325 to PHL vector to parking brake in 20 minutes. Outstanding.

Good job all and RIP to the lost soul...

She reacted just like she was supposed to. Calm, reasoned and capable. Any pilot that gets hysterical should be fired on the spot.

Listen to the cockpit recording for the flight that hit birds and had to ditch in the Hudson river. No time for any chit chat or any unnecessary talk. Listen to the actual recording of the Apollo 13 astronauts. They are in a damaged space ship traveling away from earth and shutting down the flight systems in a calm and reasoned manner. No yelling, not blaming others, just do the job at hand.

Professional all.

[sand_man]

I never knew that they actually refer to the passengers as "souls" in an "official" capacity, until I heard the flight recording.

[mreid]

Souls also includes the crew.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

She reacted just like she was supposed to. Calm, reasoned and capable. Any pilot that gets hysterical should be fired on the spot.

Listen to the cockpit recording for the flight that hit birds and had to ditch in the Hudson river. No time for any chit chat or any unnecessary talk. Listen to the actual recording of the Apollo 13 astronauts. They are in a damaged space ship traveling away from earth and shutting down the flight systems in a calm and reasoned manner. No yelling, not blaming others, just do the job at hand.

Professional all.

Odyssey this is Houston: We copy, you're venting.

[tcar]

Originally Posted by WPOZZZ

That was actually an Aloha Airlines flight, not Hawaiian. A flilght attendant did get sucked out of that plane, and amazingly, was the only casualty.

RIP CB Lansing.

Oops... can't believe I missed that. I had a friend who was a stewardess for Aloha at the time and was worried about her...

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Listen to the cockpit recording for the flight that hit birds and had to ditch in the Hudson river. No time for any chit chat or any unnecessary talk. .

Two words from Sully still resonate with me..."my aircraft". The ultimate in taking responsibility.

[sammyg2]

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.

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.

wiki

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Listen to the actual recording of the Apollo 13 astronauts. They are in a damaged space ship traveling away from earth and shutting down the flight systems in a calm and reasoned manner. No yelling, not blaming others, just do the job at hand.

Professional all.

I wish Bart Sibrel could have been on that flight.

1:30 in.

[tcar]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Two words from Sully still resonate with me..."my aircraft". The ultimate in taking responsibility.

I agree!

That's actually standard language; proper cockpit protocol.
This is a standard phrase that is said to avoid confusion.

Sully, the Captain, was taking over from the First Officer, who performed the TO.
The FO should respond "your aircraft" to acknowledge he understands.

"My aircraft" and "your aircraft" might be said several times during any normal flight.

It avoids confusion that might have happened in the past, if, for instance, someone said to the other in a noisy cockpit "Take it", "I'll fly now", or some other phrase.

[greglepore]

I'm floored by the way professional pilots react to pressure. I do wonder how long it takes the shaking to stop once the endorphins wear off.

Chapeau, Captain.

[mreid]

The deceased was wearing her seatbelt. Makes it a little more scary.

[pete3799]

Just saw this on the local news.
RIP Jennifer
Woman killed on Southwest flight grew up in Vermont

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by mreid

The deceased was wearing her seatbelt. Makes it a little more scary.

Probably 500 mph ground speed minimum? More or less airspeed.

Her head was right there at the window. Makes me shudder.

[tcar]

They're finding some engine casing parts... they were on radar falling-floating down about 70 m from Pittsburgh after the event

[tcar]

Originally Posted by mreid

The deceased was wearing her seatbelt. Makes it a little more scary.

Died of blunt force trauma.
Probably felt nothing.

[flatbutt]

Never letting my grandkids sit by a window behind the wing again.

[MMiller]

Originally Posted by David

Gotta wonder if she had her seat belt on?

I was curious about that as well..

This all hits too close to home. The passenger who was lost was a local girl known by a few people I know...so they are a bit upset to say the least.

My Dad was a career ATC so hearing those professionals at work reminded me of him and his coolness under fire.

[WPOZZZ]

Air pressure can do all kinds of things.