At one Or the other point of time we all have thought about, what if the plane windows could open.. It would be so fascinating.. And what not. Some of us might already know what are the consequences if even one window could break and open.. But today I'm going to bring you a real life incident in which the windshield of the pilot's cockpit broke and and it risked many lives. Let's dig deeper into it.
So this incident happened in a British Airways Airliner in "1990". The Captain Timothy Lancaster aged 42 and the co-pilot Alastair Atchinson aged 39 were on board when on an altitude of 17,300 feet a loud noise was heard. At that time the cabin crew was preparing for meal.
Due to the sudden change in air pressure Captain Tim was sucked out of the windshield, his one foot was stuck in, which prevented him from flying out all of a sudden. The cockpit contents started to fly out of the plane. At that time, the flight attendant Nigel Ogden was near the cockpit. He made a quick decision and grabbed Captain Tim's feet before he could fully go out in the air.
He saved not only the Captain from flying out, if he would fly out, the plane's engine would catch him and this could pose a threat to the entire plane and all the passengers. Captain Tim could not blink his eyes due to the wind blowing at 600 kmph. His clothes were torn off and blown away in the air. The door between the cabin and cockpit was blown of from its hinges. Every passenger was worried. They thought Captain was dead due to his open eyes and -17Β°C temperature at the high altitude.
All the authority was now with the co-pilot who was struggling with the controls wearing and air pressure mask. Informing the control tower by saying Mayday Mayday. Within 18 minutes he was able to land the plane. Captain was pinned to the windshield frame due to the air pressure.
When the medical staff examined Captain on landing, the got to know that he's got severe frostbite, few broken ribs, fracture on the right wrist and a left hand finger was fractured. But most importantly his life was saved.
After 4 months he was recovered completely and flew this very same plane. Brave enough!
Later it was clear that the windshield blew off due to the re-fitting with wrong bolts. People need to be serious with their job isn't it.
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