United Airlines Flight 811

UNLOCKING DISASTER

Modern airliners are among the most complex and reliable machines in use. But occasionally delays and fixing problems have led to catastrophe. this is the story of the most terrifying and tragically avoidable accident in recent history. It shows what happens when a 747 suffers a devastating explosion at great altitude and how the crew encounters an unpresented crisis. It is also a powerful personal story of grief and relentless investigation to uncover the full disturbing truth.

it reveals how another known problems in aircraft design have continued uncorrected on further avoidable accidents.

I will be not surprised if it happens again but, i will be surprised if it doesn't  happens again.

                                                                                                       -Passenger 

 

PANPAN! PANPAN! PANPAN!

Honolulu Airport, 24th February 1989, one of the most shocking cases of a known design flaw has been ignored for years but, now finally took its toll on the United Airlines Flight 811 a Boeing 747 bound from Honolulu to Auckland. As flight 811 prepared for the takeoff, no one on board thought that there could be a serious weakness on the aircraft. But the crew were concerned by another recent tragedy. Crew were ordered to check any baggage that looked suspicious to them on first sight, as extra caution. Flight 811 was heavily loaded with 337 passengers, crowded cargo holds and full fuel load. The doors closed on time and the crew were ready to roll for a 8 hour flight.

On fight deck were Captain David Cronin(hugely experienced, two months short of retirement) and first officer Al Slater and flight engineer Mark Thomas.

Pilots wanted to climb to 33thousand feet above the pacific to avoid turbulence due to bad weather. a 100 miles from Honolulu as flight 811 passes 23 thousand feet a major malfunction was about to occur. At this altitude there was a huge air pressure difference in the inside and outside the aircraft. Suddenly passengers sitting just above the cargo door heard a noise. Suddenly the flight engineer told the captain that the lost engine number 3. The pilots reported the atc that they were descending rapidly and returning to Honolulu. The cargo door had ripped off and taken away a large section of fuselage with it. With pressurised air blown out, a lack of oxygen at 23,000 feet was now suffocating. The passengers and crew. The pilots could tell from their instruments that the number 3 engine was failing, but they couldn't tell the full extent of the damage their priority was to get the plane down to a level where they could breathe normally. But the pilots also didn't know that the explosion had destroyed the aircraft entire oxygen supply.  With the plane heading steeply down and no word from the cockpit. The cabin crew feared the worst. With its airframe ruptured severe damage to the right wing and in Jones and the crew, forcing it down in an emergency descent. The problems on Flight 811 had only just begun. The crew finally began to level out at a safer altitude. But they now faced a barrage of problems almost immediate with the disintegration of the number 3 engine nearest to the exposure. 

5 rows of seats had been blown out in the decompression, killing 9 passengers on the flight deck. The crew had turned the stricken plane back to Honolulu, but with 128 kilometers still to go. The crisis now got far worse. Debris from the explosion had also damaged the number 4 engine if it failed completely the implications were severe. As number four engine was failing, the pilots pushed it along with the remaining engines to full power. A setting they should not be run at for more than 2 minutes, but the nearest land was 15 minutes away. The pilots were unaware that number 4 engine was now on fire. In the cabin the crew prepared for the worst. Believing they were going to die. One passenger took these photographs and hoped they'd be found in the wreckage and give clues to the cause of the crash. For 15 minutes. The plane steadily lost altitude, then at 4:00, 1000 feet the first glimmer of hope. 

But the danger was far from over. 

At Honolulu airport emergency was declared all other aircraft were diverted and the rescue services prepared for the crash landing of a fully loaded airliner. 6 minutes from the airport, the crew now had to slow down the overweight plane for landing, but the effect of this was unknown. The flaps were damaged and could not fully extend this meant that flight 811 would have to land dangerously fast. As the unstable 747 lined up for landing pilots knew they would only have one chance. But even if they got it on the runway. The nagging question remained with the stress of impact caused the damaged and overweight aircraft to disintegrate. Severely damaged with an unstable airframe and losing altitude on just two engines, Flight 811 now began its final approach to Honolulu Airport. Despite dumping fuel, the aircraft was still critically overweight, but without full flaps to keep it in the air, it had to approach fast.

After the touchdown the plane eventually came to a halt. The emergency services and the flight crew helped the passengers evacuate the crippled plane. After the evacuation when the pilots deboarded the plane the captain was dumbstruck at the first glimpse of the craft right side. Only the 9 people sitting at the exploding side were the ones to die.

United Flight 811

 

Ripped fuselage

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