| Aloha Flight 243 |
Aloha Airlines Flight 243 at Kahului Airport on April 28, 1988, after its fuselage was ripped apart during the flight. Image File history File links Alohaairlinesdisaster. ...
| | Summary | | Date | April 28, 1988 | | Type | Maintenance related fatigue failure along lap joint S-10L | | Accident site | Kahului, Hawaii | | Fatalities | 1 | | Injuries | 65 | | Aircraft | | Aircraft type | Boeing 737-200 | | Operator | Aloha Airlines | | Tail number | N73711 | | Passengers | 89 | | Crew | 5 | | Survivors | 93 | Aloha Airlines Flight 243 was a scheduled Boeing 737-200 flight between Hilo and Honolulu in Hawaii. On April 28, 1988, the aircraft suffered extensive damage after an explosive decompression inflight, but was able to land safely at Kahului Airport on Maui. One crew member was blown out of the airplane and another 65 passengers and crew were injured. April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining. ...
1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Kahului is the largest town on the Hawaiian island of Maui and is located along the north shore of central Maui. ...
Official language(s) Hawaiian and English Capital Honolulu Largest city Honolulu Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 43rd 28,337 km² n/a km 2,450 km 41. ...
737 in new Boeing Colors. ...
Aloha Airlines (IATA: AQ, ICAO: AAH, and Callsign: Aloha) is an airline headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. It operates extensive scheduled services within the Hawaiian Islands, and between Hawaii and the USA west coast. ...
737 in new Boeing Colors. ...
Hilo is the largest town on the island of Hawai‘i, and the county seat of Hawai‘i County, Hawai‘i. ...
Honolulu as seen from the International Space Station Honolulu is the largest city and the capital of the U.S. state of Hawai‘i. ...
Official language(s) Hawaiian and English Capital Honolulu Largest city Honolulu Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 43rd 28,337 km² n/a km 2,450 km 41. ...
April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining. ...
1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Explosive decompression (ED) is a sudden drop in pressure that occurs in 0. ...
Kahului Airport (IATA: OGG, ICAO: PHOG) is a regional airport of the State of Hawaii, located 3 miles (5 km) east of Kahului, Hawaii on the island of Maui near Haleakala. ...
Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727 square miles (1883 km²). Native Hawaiian tradition gives the origin of the islands name in the legend of Hawaiiloa, the Polynesian navigator attributed with discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. ...
Details
On April 28, 1988, the flight (registration number N73711) took off from Hilo International Airport at 13:25 HST bound for Honolulu. There were 89 passengers and five crew members on board. No unusual occurrences were reported during the takeoff and climb. April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining. ...
1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Hilo International Airport, formerly General Lyman Field, is an airport of the State of Hawaii in Hawaii County two miles east of the unincorporated town of Hilo in the United States. ...
The Hawaii-Aleutian Time Zone includes the state of Hawaii, and the Aleutian Islands west of 169º 30 W. It is the time zone located just west of the Alaska Standard Time Zone. ...
Honolulu as seen from the International Space Station Honolulu is the largest city and the capital of the U.S. state of Hawai‘i. ...
Around 13:48, as the aircraft reached its normal flight altitude of 24,000 feet (7,300 m) about 23 nautical miles (43 km) south-southeast of Kahului, a small section on the left side of the roof ruptured. The resulting explosive decompression tore off a large section of the roof, consisting of the entire top half of the aircraft skin extending from just behind the cockpit to the fore-wing area. This article is about a foot as a unit of length. ...
Explosive decompression (ED) is a sudden drop in pressure that occurs in 0. ...
First Officer Madeline "Mimi" Tompkins' head was jerked back during the explosion, and she saw cabin insulation flying around the cockpit. Captain Robert Schornsteimer looked back and saw blue sky where the first class cabin's roof had been. Tompkins immediately contacted Kahului Airport on Maui to declare an emergency. In commercial aviation, the first officer is the second pilot of an aircraft. ...
Captain is both a nautical term and a rank in various uniformed organizations. ...
Kahului Airport (IATA: OGG, ICAO: PHOG) is a regional airport of the State of Hawaii, located 3 miles (5 km) east of Kahului, Hawaii on the island of Maui near Haleakala. ...
Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727 square miles (1883 km²). Native Hawaiian tradition gives the origin of the islands name in the legend of Hawaiiloa, the Polynesian navigator attributed with discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. ...
At the time of the decompression, the chief flight attendant, Clarabelle "C.B." Lansing, was standing at seat row 5 collecting drink cups from passengers. The loss of cabin pressure ejected Lansing from the plane. (It has been speculated that her body temporarily blocked a small hull rupture, causing a fluid hammer within the cabin atmosphere that greatly exacerbated the damage to the roof.) Her body was never recovered. Flight attendants, formerly called sky girls, air hostesses, stewardesses and stewards hold the primary responsibility for the safety and comfort of airline passengers. ...
Water hammer (or, more generally, fluid hammer) is a pressure surge or wave caused by the kinetic energy of a fluid in motion when it is forced to stop or change direction suddenly. ...
Flight attendant Michelle Honda, who was standing near rows 15 and 16, was thrown violently to the floor during the decompression. Despite her injuries, she was able to crawl up and down the aisle to assist and calm the terrified passengers. Flight attendant Jane Sato-Tomita, who was at the front of the plane, was seriously injured by flying debris, and was thrown to the floor. Passengers held onto her during the descent into Maui. Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727 square miles (1883 km²). Native Hawaiian tradition gives the origin of the islands name in the legend of Hawaiiloa, the Polynesian navigator attributed with discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. ...
The crew performed an emergency landing on Kahului Airport's runway 2 at 13:58. In all, 65 people were reported injured, eight seriously. The aircraft was a total write-off. [1] Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal or aircraft returns to the ground. ...
Kahului Airport (IATA: OGG, ICAO: PHOG) is a regional airport of the State of Hawaii, located 3 miles (5 km) east of Kahului, Hawaii on the island of Maui near Haleakala. ...
Aftermath After the accident, a full-scale investigation was launched by the NTSB. It concluded that the accident was caused by metal fatigue and stress fractures exacerbated by crevice corrosion [2] (the plane did, after all, operate primarily in a saltwater-saturated climate). The age of the aircraft became a key issue (it was 19 years old at the time of the accident and had sustained a remarkable number of takeoff-landing cycles — in excess of 80,000). Consequently, all major United States air carriers decided to retire their oldest aircraft to prevent a recurrence. Also, aircraft now receive additional maintenance checks as they age. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a U.S. government organization responsible for investigation of accidents involving aviation, highway, marine, pipelines and railroads in the United States. ...
In materials science, fatigue is a process by which a material is weakened by cyclic loading. ...
Figure 1 Stress tensor In physics, stress is a measure of the internal distribution of force per unit area within a body that balances and reacts to the loads applied to it. ...
A fracture is the separation of a body into two, or more, pieces under the action of stress. ...
It has been suggested that Corrosive be merged into this article or section. ...
According to a December 22, 2005 History Channel Documentary "Secrets of the Black Box", a passenger noticed a crack in the fuselage upon boarding the aircraft prior to the ill-fated flight but did not notify anyone of this. The crack was located aft of the front portside passenger door. This crack was probably due to metal fatigue related to the over 89,000 compression and decompression cycles experienced in the short hop flights by Aloha, which was the second highest number of cycles in the worldwide fleet of 737's at the time.
In addition, Congress passed the Aviation Safety Research Act of 1988 in the wake of the disaster. This provided for stricter research into probable causes of future airplane disasters.
Both pilots remained with Aloha Airlines. Robert Schornsteimer retired from Aloha Airlines in August, 2005. At that time, Madeline Tompkins was still a Captain of the airline's Boeing 737-700 aircraft.
Relics of the Plane Due to the plane's state, the airframe was scrapped by a Maui metal recycler after transport through Kahului. A belt buckle from the scrapped plane now resides, along with a photo of the plane in the scrapyard, at the Paper Airplane Museum in the Maui Mall.
Dramatizations and memorials The made for TV movie Miracle Landing is based on this incident. A television movie (also TV movie, TV-movie, made-for-TV movie, etc. ...
Miracle Landing is a made-for-TV movie based on a horrific air accident that occurred in April 1988. ...
The TV series Air Crash Investigation also reviewed the circumstances of this incident and contained both historical footage and recreations of what happened, and interviews with investigators and survivors.
In 1996, the Lansing Memorial Garden was inaugurated at Honolulu International Airport's Interisland Terminal near the gates used by Aloha Airlines. Honolulu International Airport (IATA: HNL, ICAO: PHNL) is the principal aviation gateway of the City & County of Honolulu and the State of Hawaii and identified as one of the busiest airports in the United States. ...
The novel Airframe references this crash in its plot. Airframe is a novel by renowned author Michael Crichton first published in hardback edition in 1996 and as a paperback edition in 1997. ...
See also United Airlines Flight 811 experienced an explosive decompression on February 24, 1989 after take-off from Honolulu International Airport, Honolulu, Hawaii. ...
Citing the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, an aviation accident is defined as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person...
References - ^ National Transportation Safety Board (1989). Excerpts from "Aircraft Accident Report- Aloha Airlines, flight 243, Boeing 737-200,- N73711, near Maui, Hawaii- April 28, 1988". Retrieved December 22, 2005.
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