Thirty-seven years ago today, a flight attendant named C.B. Lansing was handing a drink to a passenger at 24,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean when an 18-foot section of the roof above her tore completely off the aircraft. She was swept into the open sky, and her body was never found.
What happened in the next thirteen minutes is one of the most extraordinary stories in aviation history.
It was April 28, 1988. Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a Boeing 737-200 named Queen Liliuokalani, had already flown three round trips between the Hawaiian islands before departing Hilo for Honolulu. The 90 passengers and five crew had no reason to expect anything unusual.
The aircraft, delivered in 1969, had completed 89,680 flight cycles by that day. Each takeoff and landing pressurizes the fuselage. After so many cycles, fatigue cracks had quietly formed.
Twenty-three minutes into the flight, the upper fuselage just behind the cockpit failed. An 18-foot section of the roof peeled away. Captain Robert Schornstheimer and First Officer Madeline Tompkins faced extreme conditions: 300 mph winds, sub-freezing temperatures, damaged controls, and no cockpit communications.
Flight attendant Jane Sato-Tomita was seriously injured but helped passengers brace. Michelle Honda attempted to assist as well.
Despite the damage, the pilots managed a 13-minute emergency descent and landed at Kahului Airport on Maui. Of 95 people on board, 94 survived. Sixty-five were injured; C.B. Lansing did not survive.
The NTSB investigation revealed fatigue cracks in the fuselage as the cause. The FAA began emergency inspections worldwide, new laws were passed, and aviation maintenance programs were overhauled.
In 1995, a memorial garden was opened in Honolulu to honor C.B. Lansing. Her dedication saved lives that day, and the pilots and crew made an extraordinary landing under impossible circumstances.
