All language subtitles for Mayday.S03E01.Hanging.by.a.Thread.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

3000.

We're not getting any oxygen.

We have the terrain alarm.

We are in an emergency.

What's the worst
that could happen on
an airplane?

Maybe this.

There's not enough oxygen
to survive up here.

A freezing wind
of hurricane force

is roaring through the cabin.

- Aloha 243!
- The flight crew call
"Mayday"...

but nobody hears.

And the airplane
is headed for a mountain.

It sounds like a nightmare.

For everyone aboard Aloha
Airlines Flight 243

this is no nightmare...

It's reality.

Aloha 243, you still up?

When crash detectives
discover what happened,

their verdict shakes
the airline business.

This accident changed
aviation history.

Some people choose to
trespass in that narrow space

between life and death.

It's a scary place to be.

Surfers get there...

by chasing killer waves.

Just occasionally, fate puts
ordinary people

not just thrill seekers
into that same deadly zone

where life hangs by a thread.

On the afternoon of April 28th,
1988, it will happen...

in the sky over Hawaii.

At 1 p.m.,
Aloha Airlines Flight 243

is preparing to depart.

A Boeing 737 is on the tarmac
at Hilo Airport

on Hawaii's Big Island,

the southern most
of the Hawaii chain.

Flight 243 will be just
a 35-minute hop to Honolulu

on the island of Oahu.

Serving the islands means that
Aloha works its airplanes hard.

They make short flights
but plenty of them.

This airplane has been
shuttling between the islands

since early morning.
It'll be its ninth flight
today.

For the flight crew,
it's a routine they've followed
for many years.

Aloha 243...

Roger.

Captain Bob Schornstheimer
has been flying for 11 years

with Aloha Airlines.

His first officer Mimi Tompkins
is hoping for promotion

to captain after almost
nine years with Aloha.

Did you hear any more
about uh...?

Each of the flight attendants
has a long service record too -

but none so long as Clarabelle
Lansing -

known to everyone
as just "CB".

Well Mr. Kiner, welcome!

Always good to see you CB.

You've fixed some good weather
for us.

Absolutely!
That's the only way...

She's been flying
for 37 years,

since before the days
of the first jet airliner.

- Let me help you with this.
- Oh, yeah.

CB is the boss in the cabin -
First flight attendant.

Michelle Honda, a 14-year
veteran, is number 2.

Jane Sato Tomita
has served 19 years.

This is one of the most
experienced crews you'll find

in an airplane that's been
criss-crossing Hawaii's islands
safely,

for 19 years.

Circuit breakers?

It's made more
than 89,000 flights.

On this day, only one other
737 in the entire world

beats that record.

Checked!

Passengers have no reason
to doubt they're in safe hands.

Until one passenger
- Gayle Yamamoto -

sees something that makes
her pause.

But what is it
she's concerned about?

And how worried should
she be?

Do I say something?

Patricia Aubrey lives
in Hilo,

but has an appointment today
in Honolulu.

At first she opts for the very
front of the airplane, in row
1.

But, somehow, she feels
uneasy and decides to move
further back.

She chooses a free seat
in row 17.

At 1:25, Flight 243
is ready for take off.

This airplane often rattles and
shakes on take off and landing.

But it's something the crew
- and regular passengers -

have grown used to.

What's there to worry about?

Aloha Departure,
this is Aloha 243

climbing through 3000.

Roger. Climbing to flight
level...

Though he's the captain,
Bob Schornstheimer has chosen

to take charge of radio links
with air traffic control.

It's Mimi Tompkins who will fly
the plane to Honolulu.

Most of the flight time
is taken up in climbing

to their cruising altitude.

It'll take 20 minutes to climb
to 7,300 metres.

For many passengers,
soaring high over the Pacific

is all part of the daily
routine.

People like salesman
Howard Kitaoka, in row 5.

He makes this trip often.

When you've seen the view
a hundred times...

35 minutes is precious time
to catch up on paperwork.

The flight's so short that
the attendants serve drinks

while they're still climbing.

They can move around.

But the passengers are still
strapped in.

It's 1:45.

20 minutes into the flight,

the aircraft
is at cruising height.

Aloha Centre, Aloha 243
leveling off at 2-4-0.

The crew relax.

Say where's that National
Weather Service Weather Station
out here?

Is that in the old tower?

In perfect flying weather,

everything is following
the familiar pattern...

- What was that?
- We have to get it down!

We've lost pressure...

I saw a brilliant flash
of light and boom.

Everything was going...

was being sucked out
of the plane.

Here's what's happened:

An explosive decompression
has torn away

35 square metres of fuselage.

We were in a tremendous
blast of wind.

The wind blast was unbelievable.

A mass of things just went out
the plane.

You know, hair was up here.

Everybody was in their seat.

Except the stewardesses.

I saw the stewardess
get smashed down in the...

in the aisle.
I could see her hair blowing

and I could see blood, but--
That's all I could see of her.

Jane Sato Tomita has been
struck by debris at row 2.

Michelle Honda has been
thrown to the floor at row 15.

There's no sign at all
of CB Lansing.

I can't hear you!

Only seconds have passed
since the explosion.

The wind noise makes it
impossible

for the flight crew
to communicate.

- I can't hear you!
- We've lost pressure!

Now, for the first time,

they gain a sense
of what's happened.

Visible over a mound
of tangled debris,

there's blue sky where
the airplane roof used to be.

The first five rows are now
completely exposed to the sky,

on both sides of the plane.

The initial threat,
of being sucked out, is past,

since the airplane is
now completely depressurized.

But passengers are still
in danger.

My seat mate was flopping out
outside the aircraft,

cause at that point, it was just
the floor,

and no walls or ceiling,
and so I grabbed him.

The cold and oxygen
deprivation

are both potentially deadly.

Just imagine the scene
up there:

the top of the airplane
broken off;

the passengers don't have
any ability to get supplemental
oxygen

because the critical
tubing that feeds that oxygen is
now gone.

And at 24,000 feet with
very little to breathe up there,

the passengers become
incapacitated.

That's called hypoxia.

If you stay up at that
altitude for any prolonged
period of time,

you become more and more
physically disabled.

With the top of the airplane
gone,

you now have 300-mile an hour
winds blowing into that cabin,

that's three times hurricane
force winds.

Those people were dressed
for Hawaii in the springtime,

not -50 degree temperatures.

Any period of time
at 24,000 feet

and those people will die.

High above the Pacific Ocean

an extraordinary drama
is unfolding...

An explosion at 7,300 metres

aboard a Boeing 737 bound
for the Hawaiian island of
Oahu,

tears 35 square metres
of fuselage from the airplane,

exposing passengers
to the sky.

The cabin is depressurized
with no emergency oxygen
supply.

Unless they rapidly reach
a lower altitude

where they can breathe again,
the passengers will die.

Captain Bob Schornstheimer
takes over command of the
aircraft

from first officer
Mimi Tompkins.

He begins an emergency descent,

dropping 1200 metres
per minute.

Its speed now increasing
to more than 500 kilometres
an hour.

As the aircraft hurtles down,
passengers face a new terror.

Wreckage blocks their view
of the cockpit,

and when the airplane
split apart,

the nose dropped down by
around one metre.

The plane is held together
by just the narrow floor beams.

The floor was buckling
up,

and you could tell the
plane was bending in the middle.

Michelle Honda can't go
forward far enough

to see whether the pilots
are alive or dead.

She tries to make contact
via the intercom.

Can anyone hear me?

The wires are severed.

As she struggles forward
to try to reach the cockpit,

she gets asked the one question
she can't answer.

Do we have a pilot!!

I don't know!

Do we have a pilot?

I do not know!

Can you fly a plane?

The terror of those on board
can only be imagined

as she asks the one question
no airplane passenger wants
to hear.

Can you fly a plane?

Michelle Honda was coming up
and cupping her hands

and yelling in everyone's ear
individually,

"Can you fly a plane?"

It's like, what? You know!
Get out of here!

Is the...
Is the pilot gone, too?

You know because
you couldn't tell if there
was anybody up there.

Do you know how to fly
a plane?

No!

First officer Mimi Tompkins
tries to alert

air traffic control
at Honolulu.

Recordings from the cockpit
voice recorder,

the black box, analyzed later
by accident investigators

provide a dramatic record
of exactly what took place.

The nearest place
where they can try to land

is the island of Maui.

Kahului Airport lies between
two volcanic mountains.

Between them and safety
lies a 3,000-metre high summit.

To fly from the location
of the explosion,

to the safety
of Kahului Airport,

the pilot needs to carefully
maneuver

avoiding this high ground.

Can the fragile aircraft
survive the stresses of
turning?

Or, if they ever reach
the airport of landing?

And how can those on board
survive?

Jane Sato Tomita is barely
conscious.

Howard Kitaoka
clutches her hand...

The only faint sign of life
is once,

when Jane squeezes back.

I'm not exactly sure
if she was conscious,

but I did manage
to squeeze her hand,

and she responded
by squeezing my hand.

And we just held hands.

That simple squeeze
of the hand,

at a time like that, is very...

very emotional.

Aloha 243...

Do you read me?

Mimi Tompkins
is not getting through

to Honolulu Air Traffic
control.

So she switches to the
frequency for the tower

at Maui's Kahului Airport.

Maui tower.

Aloha 243.

Maui tower. Aloha 243.

Aircraft calling tower.
Say again?

Aloha 243.

We're inbound for landing.

At 1:48,

three minutes after
the explosion,

the crew make their first voice
contact with the ground.

...depressurized!

Declaring an emergency!

Aloha 243.
Say your position.

We're just, ah,
to the east of Makena Point.

Descending out of 11,000.

Request clearance into Maui
for landing.

Request the emergency
equipment.

Airport fire station?

We have an Aloha 737
five minutes out.

Approximately 20 miles,
clear to runway 0-2.

Decompression problems.

Pilot is declaring
an emergency!

Thank you Maui tower!

In the station! In the station!

Attention in the station.

We have an in-flight emergency.

We have a 737,

five minutes out, 20 miles,
runway 2.

It has decompression problems
at this time.

Runway 2! Runway 2!

Aloha 243.

Okay, the equipment is
on the field.

It's on the way.

At 3,000 metres flying west
of the mountain,

the pilot slows the aircraft,

and as gently as possible,

begins the right-hand turn
towards Kahului.

Passengers sense that
someone must be in control
of the aircraft.

I've had some training
as a pilot.

And we were at wings level.

It wasn't in a dive or a roll,
it was wings level.

At that moment I thought,
"We have a chance."

Meanwhile, those on the
ground are unsure

about what kind of crisis
they're facing.

It's a small airport.

An airliner in trouble will
test the fire crew's
experience.

For the air controller,

it's hard to hear
the airplane at all.

Just to verify again,
you're breaking up,

your call sign is 243?
Is that correct?

Or 244?

Aloha 243! Aloha 243!

Aloha 243.

Plan straight ahead for
runway 0-2.

I'll keep you advised
of any wind change.

Four minutes after
the explosion.

At this lower altitude,
they're able to remove their
oxygen masks.

With their speed having dropped
to a little over

380 kilometers an hour,

the wind noise decreases
just enough for them to hear
one another.

Do you want me to call for
anything else?

No.

Aloha 243.

It looks like we've lost a door.

We have a hole in the left side
of the aircraft.

= But the tower can't hear
this new information.

They've lost contact with
the aircraft.

Their transmissions
aren't being picked up.

Aloha 243.

You still up?

Is this a radio malfunction?
Or something worse?

Aloha 243?

Hearing nothing
from the stricken aircraft,

the controller fears the worst.

Aloha 243.

Aloha 243?
Are you still up?

Aloha 243, if you're still here,
please ident!

Affirmative!

Aloha 243, Roger.

I've got your idents
straight away.

Cleared to land.
Wind 0-4-0 at 20 knots.

Communication is restored,

but the crew's ordeal
is far from over.

Cabin.

Do you hear?

Now, Mimi Tompkins tries to
contact the cabin by intercom,

but there's no response.

Well, the crew really
doesn't know what's going on
behind them.

The airplane is still flying...

The captain has to now
maintain his focus on flying
that airplane,

but he doesn't know what
real damage exists behind him.

Tell them we'll need
a distance to evacuate...

Right.

Maui Tower, Aloha 243! Can you
hear me on tower frequency?

Aloha 243, I hear you loud
and clear. Go ahead.

We're going to need
assistance.

We can't communicate
with the flight attendants.

We'll need assistance with
the passengers when we land.

Okay. You're going to need
an ambulance, is that correct?

Affirmative.

During the descent,

passengers experience moments
of pure terror.

The plane kept vibrating
and shaking,

and the luggage racks
were falling in

and there was electrical wires
flying around and zapping

and, uh, you know, pretty much
pandemonium,

but it looked like the plane was
ripping in half.

And suddenly there's
a new problem for the flight
crew to handle.

It feels like manual
reversion!!

What?

The flight controls feel like
manual reversion!

It feels to the pilot
as though hydraulic systems

like power steering in
an automobile have now failed.

The airframe is under
great stress.

They need to land as soon
as possible.

Can we maintain altitude okay?

There are so many thoughts
that go through your head.

Like, one of my thoughts
was,

uh man, don't put this thing
in the water.

I mean you've got people around,
you've got hurt, unconscious.

I didn't want to have
to say, well,

I'm going to try to save
this guy first,

or that guy first or whatever.

And don't put it in
under water.

The crew fear that critical
wiring and control cables

may have been severed.

Have any of the airplane's
vital parts been damaged?

Let's try flying with
the gear down!

All right.
You've got it!

There are lights to indicate
whether or not the landing gear

has safely deployed.

The main undercarriage
has extended as normal.

But the light showing
that the nose wheel has
extended

doesn't come on.

The last thing the pilot
wanted to see

especially with his airplane
in the condition it was in

was that he didn't have
a nose gear,

because when the plane touched
down on the runway,

it would have broken
the airplane apart,

therefore breaking probably
the fuel tanks apart,

which could lead to a very
dramatic fire and explosion.

A second attempt to extend
the landing gear.

The nose gear light is
still out.

But the radio link is so bad,

the tower is still trying to
assimilate the crisis.

Aloha 243.

Just to verify,
you do need an ambulance.

Is that correct?

They still don't understand!
Affirmative!

Roger. How many
do you think are injured?

We have no idea.

We can't communicate
with our flight attendants.

Okay. We'll have the ambulance
on the way

There's a possibility
that we won't have a nose gear!

Now Bob Schornstheimer
has to make a critical
decision.

Should he wait for confirmation
that the undercarriage is down?

Or land anyway?

The textbook in this case
would tell the pilots to over
fly the airfield

so that the air traffic
controllers can look at
the landing gear

and give them a report
whether it's up or down.

The pilots would then have
to maneuver the airplane

all the way around the airfield

come in for an approach
and land.

But with an airplane which
might break apart at any
moment,

that's out of the question.

Tell him we've got problems,
but we're going to land anyway,

even without a nose gear.

But they should be aware
that we don't have a nose gear
indication down.

Aloha 243.
Wind now 0-5-0.

The emergency equipment
is in place.

Okay. Be advised we have
no nose gear.

We are landing with
no nose gear!

Okay. If you need
any other assistance, advise.

We'll need all
the equipment you've got!

Maui is not an ideal place
to head for

with a damaged airplane.

The island's exposed north
shore lies directly in the path

of the trade winds.

I've done that landing,
a lot of times,

and that particular approach
corridor is very windy

because of the mountain on one
side, a mountain on the other.

So, it's a very bumpy approach.

But, ah, that's basically
all we had.

Get in a brace position!
Brace yourself!

Brace yourself! Get down!

Any kind of inflight
turbulence that would have put

great stresses on the front end
of the airplane

and there's a high probability
that the cockpit

would have separated
from the rest of the fuselage.

Catastrophic loss of
the airplane and loss of life.

With the airfield now
in sight,

Bob Schornstheimer has
more critical decisions to
make.

He begins to slow
the aircraft for landing.

Let's try flaps 15...

An airplane's flaps
are sliding panels

at the back of the wings.

To increase lift at low speeds,

they need to be extended
during takeoff and landing.

Is it easier to control with
the flaps up?

Yeah.

Put them back to five.

Can you give me a Vspeed for
a flaps five landing?

No two aircraft landings
are the same.

Pilots have to factor in
many things:

the wind speed and direction,
passenger and fuel load,

and the length of
the runway before them.

Do you want the flaps
right down as we land?

What?

Do you want the flaps
right down as we land?

Yeah, but after
we've touched down.

Okay.

A complicated formula
provides the 'Vref',

indicating the safe
landing speed.

Even in a crisis like this,

pilots have to reach
for the manual.

Extending the flaps fully
will help act as a brake

once they touch down.

But to do it earlier
could stress the airframe
to breaking point.

What you have to remember is
that the pilots weren't trained

to handle a situation like this.

With the top of their airplane
missing,

they became test pilots.

The aerodynamic effects
of the airplane

were drastically different than
they were used to.

They really had to fly
by the seat of their pants.

Aloha 243. Wind now 0-5-0
at 20.

Vref 40 plus 30
for flaps 1 through flaps 15.

What? Wait!

Ah...

Using her flight manual,

the first officer makes
the complicated calculation

that will give their correct
landing speed.

Right!

The safe speed for landing,
taking into account

the length of Kahului's
runway 2,

is calculated to be 152 knots,
282 kilometres an hour.

As the airplane slows, it
becomes much harder to control.

And so the pilot has
to make another crucial call.

Speeding up, to keep control,

means he'll hit the runway
faster than he should.

He gambles that the higher
speed landing

is still the best option.

Our approach speed I felt
was hot,

I mean we were coming in hot.

I don't know, don't ask me
how many miles an hour it was
cause I don't know,

but from other landings,
we were coming in fairly hot.

Crash rescue teams prepare
themselves

for a worst-case scenario.

At high speed and without
the nose gear,

a crash landing followed
by a catastrophic fuel fire

now seems inevitable.

Under these conditions,
the lack of a nose gear

could have been a death
sentence for everyone aboard
this aircraft.

A Boeing 737 with
95 people on board

has suffered an explosive
decompression

near the Hawaiian island
of Maui.

It's still airborne but
only just,

with 35 square metres
of fuselage missing from
the Aloha plane.

As they prepare
for an emergency landing,

warning lights indicate
that the forward landing gear

has not deployed.

If so, the airplane will
most likely crash and burn.

In the 12 horrifying minutes
since the explosion,

some passengers are
convinced they're not going
to make it alive.

I thought it was going to go
in the water.

And, uh, I was eaten
by sharks.

And then, we saw the mountain

and I didn't think we were going
to make it over it.

I just knew we were going
to crash into that mountain.

And then when we could
tell,

we could see the airport
and then, you know,

then I burned to death,
because the plane blew up when
we...

When we hit the runway.

Suddenly, the news the pilots
have been praying for.

The gear is down!

Make a phone call with command,
the gear is down!

Okay thanks.

Aloha 243, just for
your information the gear
appears down.

The gear appears down.

Want me to go to flaps 40?
Help you?

No. On the ground.

The crew have had to make
life or death decisions.

In the next few seconds,

they'll find out whether
they're the right ones.

Michelle Honda cradles
her injured colleague

as the critical moment
approaches.

Passengers comfort one other,

in what may be
their last moments alive.

A woman that was sitting next
to me and her husband,

he was on the other side,
in the next row up,

and she was next to me.

And they were reaching
their hands out

and they were trying to
touch fingers to say goodbye.

That was a really touching
moment for me.

It was when I really knew
I was going to die

because they were saying goodbye
to each other.

What gave me the most
comfort,

was knowing that my wife
and my kids

knew what I felt.

That was great comfort.

I didn't need to tell them
anything further,

"I love you", or, you know
"I worry about you",

because I felt that
I had already said that.

Though the forward
undercarriage has extended,

the crew still can't be certain
whether it is locked in place

or whether it'll collapse,
on landing.

If it doesn't hold firm,

40,000 kilos of airplane

traveling at close
to 320 kilometres an hour

will smash nose down onto
the tarmac.

One reverse.

Okay.

Thrust reverser...

Aloha 243. Just shut it down
where you are.

- Okay.
- Everything's fine.

The gear did it.

The fire trucks are on the way.

- Okay. Shut it down
- Shut it down?

Yeah.

Oh God!

In this extraordinary video,
captured moments after landing,

the amount of damage
the airplane suffered

is difficult to comprehend.

An emergency evacuation
of passengers who escaped
injury

has just been completed.

Some injured passengers
have still to be helped from
the plane.

How it flew for those
13 terrifying minutes

seems astonishing.

Captain Bob Schornstheimer
is thanked by passengers who,

just minutes before,
had expected to die.

The tension is released.

Oh, I just said,
"Yes baby!"

That's all I said.

The pilot did a tremendous job.

Patricia Aubrey hugs
her heroine: Michelle Honda.

I was crying and, of course
everybody was traumatized.

Looking at the plane and looking
at the people bleeding,

and I just...

I kept touching myself
going, "I'm here.

I can't believe
I'm still alive."

Her last-minute impulse
to switch seats

saves her from injury,
maybe from death.

Something was telling me
not to sit there,

cause I didn't have
a good reason to move, you know.

My guardian angel
was tapping me on the shoulder

and telling me to move.

A final desperate headcount
by Michelle Honda

confirms the crew's worst
fears.

CB Lansing,
the veteran of 37 years

flying for this airline
is missing.

A sea search begins
in the area of ocean

where the explosion
took place.

Neither body, nor wreckage,
are found.

Jane Sato Tomita
has started to recover.

Seven passengers
are seriously hurt.

The worst injury:
a skull fracture.

But how have the rest survived?

At the moment
of decompression...

it's just their seatbelts which
made the difference

between life and death.

It just went poof, a loud
noise

and the whole thing came apart
and, uh...

I personally thought we were
all gone,

and we were uh,

passengers all had
our seatbelts fastened.

Or most of us evidently, or
we would have lost a lot more.

But there is something else.

At the most critical moment,

Maui's notorious high winds
died away.

I was amazed to see the
front of the fuselage missing.

What was so funny about
the whole thing is that,

when it came in, it had no wind.

You know, I do believe
if you did have that wind,

that aircraft wouldn't have
made it.

It would have split in two.
Two pieces.

And it's a miracle.

It's very much a miracle.

This is one of the most
remarkable flying events in
history.

No airplane has ever landed with
this amount of damage.

The only thing that was
holding the forward section,
cockpit,

to the rest of the
fuselage were the floor beams.

Basically, they were hanging
by a thread.

From a close study
of the fuselage,

crash investigators try
to determine

how the airplane structure
remained in one piece.

The critical factor proves
to be the precise location of
the explosion.

The thing that saved
them was that,

because the damage was
across the top of the airplane,

as the nose tried to bend down,

these members through here
are in tension

and it kept them in line,
it kept them straight.

So, even though it was almost
ready to break off, uh,

the structure was still strong
enough here to keep it together.

If this damage had been along
the bottom,

and the nose is trying
to bend down this way,

this structure would have been,

a similar structure
would have been in compression

and it would have buckled and
the nose would have certainly
come off.

So it was fortunate that
the damage was across the top.

How does the roof of
a jet airliner simply blow
away?

The US National Transportation
Safety Board, NTSB,

is tasked with discovering
what happened.

Investigators pull
the airplane's records,

something like an automobile
service history

and suspicion falls right away
on the airplane itself.

The best evidence for what
happened,

the missing fuselage section,

is now lying at the bottom of
the Pacific Ocean.

But by carefully piecing
together the clues they do
have,

investigators hope to solve one
of the most spectacular

accidents of all time.

In the 38 years since
its launch in 1967,

more than 5,000
737s were sold.

Somewhere in the world,
a 737 takes off every 5
seconds.

The accident airplane
was number 152

off the production line,
delivered in May 1969.

The airplane was designed
for a 20-year service life
and 75,000 flights.

This one had exceeded
that number.

Though many were of short
duration.

Its fuselage was under
constant stress

because of pressurization.

The fuselage of the airplane
is actually breathing,

it expands and contracts
depending on altitude.

When it's on the ground
it's in a contracted status,

when it's at altitude,
24,000 feet,

the fuselage expands.

So the airplane is constantly
cycling, that's pressurization.

That will weaken the structure
over a long period of time,

and given the history of this
airplane,

being a very high-cycle
airplane

that probably had something
to do with weakening

the structure of the fuselage.

With thousands of 737s taking
to the skies each day...

investigators need to be
certain what made this one
burst apart.

An Aloha Airlines
Boeing 737

bursts apart in midair
over Hawaii.

After 13 extraordinary minutes
in the air,

it makes an emergency landing
on the island of Maui.

Investigators need to discover
what caused

this spectacular incident.

In Washington DC,

Jim Wildey is one of the NTSB
team who worked the case.

His expertise as a metallurgist
proves crucial.

I got a call, about two
in the morning,

the middle of the night,
from my boss

and there had been the
accident in Hawaii.

They were putting the team
together

and I hopped on a plane
and went to Hawaii

He takes samples
from the remaining fuselage

and back in the lab,
discovers something

barely visible to the naked
eye.

Hairline cracks, like this,

beside the holes where
rivets had been.

Figuring out how those cracks
came to be there

means going back to basics,

to the way the Boeing 737
was put together.

Airplanes are built
from many separate panels.

Where they overlap,
they're bonded together

by a powerful adhesive
known as epoxy.

Rivets hold the panels
tight together

while the epoxy sets hard.

On the Aloha airplane
there's telltale discoloration

inside the overlapping joints.

Here is the vital clue.

You can see now this
dark material is the epoxy

that was used to bond
the two layers

of the lap joint together.

The white material you see
here is corrosion damage

of the aluminum fuselage skin.

So, the original intent was,

the stress that's trying
to pull one skin away from
the other skin piece,

the stresses would go through
the bonding

and not through the rivets.

Of course, as this thing
becomes disbonded,

now the rivets, themselves,
are loaded

and especially this top row
of rivets

and this is the row of rivets
we think that had the fatigue
cracking in it,

that lead to the eventual
opening of the roof structure

on the Aloha 737 airplane.

The files reveal that Boeing
warned airlines

including Aloha of problems
with some early 737s.

If the epoxy isn't applied at
exactly the right temperature,

if the panels have moisture
or dirt on them,

the bonding can fail.

In warnings and service
bulletins,

some issued over 15 years
earlier,

Boeing spells out the danger.

The Hawaii climate, with humid
and salt-laden air,

helps corrosion to occur.

But instead of grounding
airplanes for a nose-to-tail
examination,

Aloha has inspectors
make occasional checks,

often at night, when those on
duty are least alert.

Working under artificial light.

Those tiny cracks escape
detection.

These cracks go
unrepaired and now you have an
airplane

that is a ticking time
bomb.

There are other problems.

Boeing's service bulletins,

and what are called
"airworthiness directives"

issued by the Federal Aviation
Administration,

are often difficult
to understand.

Airworthiness directives are
very complex

and read like a legal document.

Aloha needed to have someone
who could read that document

and interpret it into plain
English for the mechanics,

the wrench turners.
That never happened.

An airplane that has been
worked so hard

serviced by mechanics
who don't fully understand
the briefings

is a recipe for disaster.

Investigators now believe
they know why the airplane
burst open.

But they don't yet know how.

I was flying back from Hawaii
to Los Angeles

and while I was in the air
I got a message that, uh,

that we needed to interview this
passenger who had,

apparently, seen a crack

as she was getting on
the accident flight.

You saw something as you got
on this airplane,

which uh, you pointed out to
your roommate...

Cynthia Johnson.

Yeah. Cynthia.

Uh, talk me through it.

What did you see?

What I saw was...

to the right of the door,
where the paint was white...

Well, it was a crack,

it was like, not a hole exactly,
but the metal on top

had come away from
the metal below.

I was going to tell the flight
attendant you know,

but they were busy...

We had to take our seats.

Well yeah, and you figured,
they know what they're doing,

it's their airplane.

I didn't want to make a fuss
or anything.

No, no. Absolutely.

The witness saw cracking
in this area

and we found fatigue cracking
back in here.

So, this is the line where
the fatigue cracking joined up.

One piece came down this way
and folded off

and the other piece went across
the top and came off

to the right side.

But something still
doesn't make sense.

Boeing designed the 737
and other of its aircraft,

so that this should never
happen.

Every ten inches along
the airplane are what are
called

"tear straps" inside
the fuselage to strengthen it.

If a tear begins, it should
only reach the next strap,

before shooting off at
a 90-degree angle.

Though there's a hole
in the aircraft,

it acts like a safety valve.

The purpose of the tear strip
is to confine any kind of rip

or tear in the fuselage skin
to a 10-inch square basically.

If you allow it to propagate
beyond this 10-inch square,

you could then compromise
larger sections of the fuselage

and cause a blowout.

The 10-inch square allows
a controlled decompression

and confines any structural
damage to a very small area.

So why has the safety valve
failed here?

The NTSB believe there were
so many cracks in the fuselage

that they simply joined
together,

running right through
the tear straps.

The Aloha airplane was
kind of unique in a couple of
ways.

The way it was operated
was with very short flights,

so you had large numbers
of these pressurization cycles.

And stress was going on and off
on these rivet locations.

And secondly,
with the disbonding,

all this stress is now going
through the rivets,

and that led to the linking up
of these cracks,

and then the roof coming off
of the airplane.

But is that the final answer
on what happened to flight 243?

A new theory claims to shed
fresh light

on those dramatic events.

Matt Austin is an engineer
who lives in Honolulu.

The story of flight 243
both appalls and fascinates
him.

I flew very regularly on Aloha
airlines,

and I'd been on that plane about
a week before

it actually lost the roof.

You could tell that
something was loose in the
airplane.

It's just like when you're
in an old car and you hit a
bump.

You can hear the rattles
in it that you won't hear in
a new aircraft.

In this case,
when the aircraft landed,

there would be noises and
rattles you wouldn't hear on
a newer aircraft.

He begins his own
investigation,

scrutinizing the 4,000 pages of
evidence and photographs

gathered during
the official inquiry.

I am an expert in explosion
dynamics

and how pressure vessels
explode,

what causes them to explode,
which way the cracks run,

uh, as they're coming apart.

In the case of the Aloha
accident,

the main focus from
the aeronautical industry

was they were looking at it as
an airplane structural failure,

whereas I analyzed it from
the point of view

of a pressure vessel failure.

As he reviews the evidence,
one question keeps recurring.

Why is CB Lansing sucked out
of the aircraft,

and not her colleague
Jane Sato Tomita?

Jane was further forward
than CB at the crucial moment.

Jane was at row 2...

CB was at row 5.

The NTSB believes the roof
separation began near row 3.

Passenger testimony gathered
shortly after the incident

suggests that CB Lansing was
sucked upwards

and to the left,
but not forward.

I was on the aisle,
on the right.

So I look up from my magazine

and I see a pair of legs go up
and out on the left.

Just back of first class.

From where I was...

if the nose was 12
this is at 11, yeah?

Forensic evidence suggests
another possible scenario.

Michael Sweet, an ex-cop,

is now a specialist
in blood spatter analysis.

By studying the blood stains
at crime scenes,

he can help put
a killer behind bars.

Or, free the innocent.

He examines official
photographs of the 737
fuselage.

This is a large
photograph of the left side

of the airplane.

Ah, the front would be
at this location.

There's a, what we suspect
to be a bloodstain pattern

on the... right beside
the window, right here.

Could this bloodstain be
where CB Lansing's head

impacted with the outside
of the fuselage?

The analyst believes so.

Well the fact that there
are bloodstains on the side
of this airplane,

suggests to me that the blood
source in this case

was momentarily trapped

when it came into contact
with the side of the airplane.

If the flight attendant
in this case,

was ejected outside
of the gaping hole,

I would expect her to disappear
almost immediately

and not leave any bloodstains on
the side of the airplane.

This analysis suggests
only that she was trapped...

but without explaining
how or why.

Matt Austin believes he has
the answer.

On April the 28th,
1988,

a Boeing 737 owned by
Aloha Airlines in Hawaii,

suffers an explosive
decompression in midair.

Amazingly it lands safely, with
the loss of one crew member.

Investigators blame metal
fatigue,

due to poor maintenance.

But a new and controversial
theory has emerged,

challenging at least
part of the chain of events.

What if a safety hole has
opened up as it was designed to
do

but directly above
the flight attendant?

Matt Austin believes
CB Lansing is sucked into
the safety hole...

momentarily blocking it.

All of the air that's trying
to escape has no place to go.

So it built up a huge
pressure spike

and that's what blew the
roof off the top of the
airplane.

What he's describing
is known as a fluid hammer.

In scientific terms,
air is fluid as is water.

Here's a simple demonstration
in a bathtub.

The water is in fact escaping
through the drain.

As we move the drain plug back
down toward the hole,

it will immediately slam shut
and create a force,

which is a simple example
of a fluid hammer.

He believes this phenomenon
on a giant scale

caused the accident.

It's very tragic, but
if we don't look at the forensic
evidence that's left

then we won't understand
exactly what caused

the explosive decompression

and possibly prevent
a future occurrence.

The NTSB say the fluid hammer
theory is valid scientifically,

but for them the evidence still
points to something simpler.

A virtually simultaneous
failure in the airplane's
many weak spots.

The safety board's
investigations are never
really closed.

And we also would take
into account any new information

that comes out.

I believe in the case
of the Aloha accident

we have not changed
our probable cause.

And we still are sticking
with the probable cause

as we determined back
in 1988.

Since the crucial physical
evidence was never found,

what happened on board
at the precise moment of
explosion

will probably never be known.

Aloha Airlines management
took most of the blame

for their poor maintenance
regime.

The NTSB demanded that the
Federal Aviation Administration

do a much better job enforcing
maintenance standards.

Boeing had already improved
their manufacturing process

to prevent the adhesive
becoming so easily
contaminated.

What happened on flight 243
made flying safer.

Soon after,

Congress passed the Aviation
Safety Research Act.

This accident had a very
profound effect

on the aviation industry
and the way we look at aging
airplanes, old aircraft.

We changed the way we monitor
how they age,

the way we inspect them
and of course,

now how we manufacture them.
We use different processes.

This was a very critical
accident for aviation history.

Those 13 terrifying minutes
also left their impact

on the survivors of
flight 243.

I had to go through a healing
process,

I took fear of flying classes
and, uh...

The old saying of "You
fall off a horse,

and you get back on it"
is very accurate,

but it's a lot tougher
to actually do it.

Patricia Aubrey had to find
a way of dealing

with the memories also.

Her way was to revisit the same
piece of airspace

where the terror unfolded.

I would go flying
with my psychologist.

You go through what they call
desensitization,

where you confront your fear,

and you do it so many times

that you can do it without
having a bad reaction.

Before that happened, if
something bad happened to me,

I'd go, "I hate life."

But I don't hate life.

I can deal with it.
Bring it on.

I'll take care of it.
I'd much rather be alive.

There's one further legacy
of that fateful day.

The ocean never did surrender
the body of CB Lansing.

Instead, a memorial garden,

honoring the veteran
flight attendant

was planted at Honolulu Airport
beneath the big Hawaiian sky

where she spent the better part
of her life.

And where it was
so suddenly ended.

difuze