This is the horrifying story of an aviation disaster that was narrowly averted in June 1990, when a wrongly-installed panel of the windscreen on British Airways Flight 5390 fell out, causing the plane’s cockpit to decompress and its captain to be pulled halfway out of the aircraft at over 17,000 feet.

BA 5390 left Birmingham Airport at 7.20am, heading for Malaga in Spain.  At the controls were Captain Tim Lancaster, 42, and his co-pilot, 39-year-old Alastair Atchison, both experienced flyers, and their take-off was routine.

Less than 15 minutes into the flight, with the plane at 17,300 feet over Oxfordshire, there was a loud bang in the cockpit, and the windscreen on the captain’s side blew out from its mooring, causing immediate decompression.

Both pilots had loosened their harnesses, and Lancaster was forcefully pulled toward the open window by the rush of air. The whole top half of his body was dragged out of the plane, with only his legs remaining inside, caught on the flight controls.

Flight attendant Nigel Ogden, on the flight deck at the time, quickly grabbed hold of Lancaster’s belt, while the stricken captain was flung from side to side by powerful winds and began to lose consciousness in the thin air at that altitude.

Ogden, too, began to suffer from frostbite and exhaustion, and was relieved by chief steward John Heward and flight attendant Simon Rogers.

Lancaster’s head was now banging against the side of the cockpit, leading the crew to believe he had died. Fortunately they held onto him in fear that his body might get sucked into the plane’s engine.

Given permission for an emergency landing at Southampton Airport, Atchison brought the plane down safely as the crew hung on grimly to Lancaster. The pilot was discovered to be alive and was rushed to hospital as frightened passengers disembarked. The whole ordeal had lasted 22 minutes.

BA Flight 5390. The story

BA Flight 5390, a BAC One-Eleven, was carrying 81 passengers and six crew at the time of the incident.

When the window was blown out, the force of the air rushing out of the aperture caused the door of the flight deck to blow inwards and fall onto the plane’s controls. The throttle was forced open, meaning that the plane was accelerating as it began to lose altitude.

Heading downwards at 80 feet a second and with winds of -17C rushing around them, the crew were forced to cling onto the unconscious Lancaster, whose weight was made equivalent to 500lb due to the suction force of the air outside the plane.

Lancaster was treated for fractures to his right arm, left thumb and right wrist, as well as frostbite and shock.  Remarkably, he returned to work within five months.

Flight attendant Nigel Ogden suffered a dislocated shoulder and frostbite to his face and eye.  He returned to work after a break but suffered post-traumatic stress and took early retirement in 2001. No-one else involved in the incident was injured.

Accident investigators discovered that when the windscreen had been refitted to the plane the night before, the wrong bolts had been used to secure it; they were little more than half a millimetre too small, and had failed under intense air pressure.

The bolts had actually replaced other incorrect ones; the engineer, working under pressure and without reference to manuals, had simply replaced the old bolts with new ones on a like-for-like basis.

As a result of the incident, windscreens on British Airways planes are now secured by bolts on the inside of the plane, rather than the outside, putting them under even less pressure.

http://home.bt.com/news/on-this-day/june-10-1990-miracle-of-ba-flight-5390-as-captain-is-sucked-out-of-the-cockpit-and-survives-11363985642960

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_5390


Photos below

Weird facts
Reconstructed cockpit image
Plane aftermath showing how the window blew out
Standing middle: Captain Lancaster. Squatting middle copilot Atchinson. Left Ogden and right Head Steward. Months after the incident.

Horrifying indeed. I can't imagine what was going through that pilot's mind as he hung out there, 17,000 feet above the ground and the plane's giant engine propellers just rolling a few meters away from his head

What an ordeal .The captain is very lucky to have survived.

Can't imagine that harrowing experience

It's even terrible to imagine.....heading into the propellers,looking like some final destination shit. Those crews tried.

The pilot was not strapped down.

Wow.
Terrifying experience

please help my life

https://www.nairaland.com/5493454/

I watched it on a station, can't remember which.

They changed the bolts of the windscreen, but that wasn't even the major problem. The problem was the side he fastened it from.

I think he fastened it on the outside, so it gave way to pressure.

na shiit be dat so?

What?

Oh my goodness

ClitRaider:
Wish same could happen when our presidential jet flys next with cow and Zombies loaded.

Many who wished death for him are long dead, be careful what you wish for him(yourself).
This incident got nothing to do with him

That day was terrible, we had to land halfway, I wasn't injured tho. How time flies

Chisos

God is good

Believe

Maddd ooo

Chai

For which movie abeg

Christ! Is it a movie? This is Horror



Let's repair your faulty laptop

I will never fly a plane again as the pilot




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This why is always good to worship Ogun Laakaye Osinmole


Accident by metallic objects can "NEVER" befall you

This so horrible....






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May we, our family members, friends never fall victim of road accident, plane crash, water or home accident.. Amen

Good thing he survived. What then happened to the window, did they fix it back?

Meanwhile, see beautiful Transformation and latest update on the life of Destined Kids, Rejoice Iwueze.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUNTOir0oOg