Aloha Airlines Flight 243
| Aloha Airlines Flight 243 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Structural failure due to material fatigue |
| place | Kahului , Hawaii |
| date | April 28, 1988 |
| Fatalities | 1 |
| Survivors | 94 |
| Injured | 65 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-200 |
| operator | Aloha Airlines |
| Mark | N73711 |
| Departure airport | Hilo International Airport |
| Destination airport | Honolulu International Airport |
| Passengers | 89 |
| crew | 6th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The Aloha Airlines flight 243 of a Boeing 737-200 was scheduled to fly from Hilo ( Big Island ) to Honolulu ( Oahu ) in Hawaii on April 28, 1988 . After the climb, a piece of the upper fuselage broke out in the front part of the fuselage. There was a sudden decompression , as a result of which 65 people were injured and a flight attendant was killed. Despite the severe damage to the aircraft, the pilots were able to land the aircraft safely at Kahului Airport on Maui .
procedure
The aircraft with registration number N73711 took off at 1:25 p.m. ( HST ). There were 89 passengers and six crew members on board. No special incidents were noticed during take-off and climb.
When the aircraft reached its normal cruising altitude of 24,000 ft (approx. 7,300 m) at around 1:48 p.m., a small part of the upper fuselage shell tore. In the following minutes, this crack widened to such an extent that it led to the entire cabin ceiling in the area between the cockpit and the leading edge of the wing being detached.
The detachment of the entire cabin ceiling led to a sudden decompression. According to passenger reports, flight attendant Clarabelle Lansing was at the level of row 5 and was pulled out of the plane by the suction - her body has not yet been found. Flight attendant Jane Sato-Tomita was in the front of the cabin - she was injured by flying parts and thrown to the ground, where she was held by passengers until the end of the flight. Flight attendant Michelle Honda was between rows 15 and 16 - despite her injuries, she was able to move between the rows, reassure passengers and prepare for a ditch.
The ripping open of the ceiling led to further technical problems. The passengers did not have any emergency oxygen, as the accident made it inoperable on this aircraft type. The radio technology in the cockpit did not work completely either and one of the landing gear displays had failed. The emergency landing took place at 13:58 at Kahului Airport on runway 02. The airport was not prepared for a disaster of this kind at the time - due to the insufficient number of ambulances, the neighboring tourism company Akamai Tours was phoned to help out with as many of its 15 minibuses as possible to transport the injured to the hospital. Among the 89 passengers there were 7 seriously injured and 57 slightly injured. It remained at one death.
Aftermath
A full investigation was initiated by the National Transportation Safety Board following the incident . Material fatigue in conjunction with corrosion (salt water environment) was found to be the cause . The gluing of the sheet metal joints was apparently inadequate, so water could penetrate into the gap and accelerate the corrosion ( crevice corrosion ). The increase in volume of the corroded materials put additional stress on the rivet connections. The age of the aircraft played a key role in the accident, as it was 19 years old and, as a short-haul aircraft, had already completed almost 90,000 flights with a total of almost 35,500 flight hours. Since some Aloha airline routes only cover a short distance, the maximum differential pressure of 7.5 psi (approx. 0.5 bar) was not achieved on each of these flights. The number of complete pressure build-up cycles was thus significantly less than 90,000.
As a result, all major American airlines withdrew their oldest aircraft and tightened maintenance controls. In addition, research on material fatigue in aircraft was intensified.
Both Captain Robert Schornstheimer (retired in 2005) and his co-pilot Madeline Tompkins stayed with Aloha Airlines.
The incident was filmed and was released in Germany in 1990 as " Katastrophenflug 243 ".
In the 1st episode of the 3rd season of the Canadian documentary series Mayday - Alarm im Cockpit , the accident was filmed as Hanging by a Thread in English and as Am Seidenen Faden in German. In simulated scenes, animations and interviews with bereaved relatives and investigators, reports were made about the preparations, the process and the background of the flight.
Alternative declaration of accident
Matt Austin, an engineer specializing in pressure vessels, developed an alternative accident explanation because he believed that fatigue cracks alone could not have caused this damage. In the event of crack formation, due to the design (through reinforcements that stop or deflect cracks), such a large piece of the fuselage should not detach, but only an approximately 25 cm × 25 cm hole that does not affect the structural stability of the fuselage, and only lead to a pressure drop. In the opinion of Matt Austin, this is exactly what happened, but the flight attendant Lansing was drawn into the hole by the explosive pressure drop (the air escaped at about 1000 km / h through the 25 cm × 25 cm hole) and was "clogged." “It. This created a huge pressure surge (also known as a water hammer), which then tore off a large area of the hull planking. This hypothesis is supported on the one hand by traces of blood on the outside of the fuselage of the aircraft and on statements from survivors. The NTSB took note of this hypothesis, but stuck with its original explanation.
Commemoration
The flight attendant CB Lansing, who was thrown from the plane in the accident, was never found. A garden was set up at Honolulu Airport in her memory .
Similar aviation accidents
- Far Eastern Air Transport Flight 103
- British European Airways Flight 706
- Japan Air Lines flight 123
- China Airlines Flight 611
Web links
- Official investigation report of the NTSB (English; PDF; 1.34 MB)
- Description of the material defects on corrosions-doctors.org (English)
- Photo of the machine (N73711) About two months before the accident ; after the accident
- Documentation Hanging by a thread , Discovery Channel: Part 1 ( Memento from October 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Part 2 ( Memento from September 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Part 3 ( Memento from October 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Part 4 ( Memento from March 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), Part 5 ( Memento from April 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Spiegel.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Official investigation report of the NTSB, Chapter 1.6 Airplane Information. (PDF; 1.4 MB) Accessed February 24, 2009 .
- ^ The Honolulu Advertiser: Engineer fears repeat of 1988 Aloha jet accident . 2001. Archived from the original on January 31, 2008. Retrieved on February 7, 2015.
- ↑ Airport website