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This reminds me of the Navy pilot that halfway ejected somehow. http://www.gallagherstory.com/ejection_seat/ http://www.gallagherstory.com/ejection_seat/

tzs 8y ago
It reminds me of British Airways Flight 5390. 27 hours before the flight, a cockpit window was replaced. Unfortunately, 84 of the 90 bolts used by the maintenance crew had a diameter 0.66 mm less than the documentation called for, so the window was not held in place as strongly as it should have been. On top of that, this plane had a design flaw. Its windows were bolted on from the outside, not the inside, meaning that the bolts had to hold against the force from the difference between the pressure in the pressurized cabin and outside. Bolts on windows bolted from the inside only have to deal with much smaller forces, such as wind during takeoff and at low altitude, and then only until the pressure difference gets high enough to take all of the force off the bolts. So...window pops out, and pilot starts getting sucked out. His legs got caught on the flight controls, and a flight attendant was able to grab the pilot's belt and hold on. The pilot was getting blown all around by the wind, and the guy holding on was getting bruised by all the motion, and was also getting frostbite. They could also see the pilot's face hitting the window, and saw his eyes were open but not blinking. They assumed he was dead, but decided to keep holding on, out of concern that if they let the body go it might get sucked into an engine and they already had enough problems (pilot's legs were still tangled in the flight controls, and they also could not hear the radios because of the noise from the wind). They did manage to get down OK, and everyone was surprised to find the pilot had survived. He had frostbite, shock, bruising, and broken arm and wrist on one side and thumb on the other. The flight attendant who had held him the most had a dislocated shoulder, and frostbite damage to his face and one eye. This incident was covered in the documentary series "Air Disasters" ("Mayday" in Canada, "Air Crash Investigation" elsewhere). Here's the Wikipedia article on the accident for complete details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_5390 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_5390

tzs 8y ago

It reminds me of British Airways Flight 5390. 27 hours before the flight, a cockpit window was replaced. Unfortunately, 84 of the 90 bolts used by the maintenance crew had a diameter 0.66 mm less than the documentation called for, so the window was not held in place as strongly as it should have been. On top of that, this plane had a design flaw. Its windows were bolted on from the outside, not the inside, meaning that the bolts had to hold against the force from the difference between the pressure in the pressurized cabin and outside. Bolts on windows bolted from the inside only have to deal with much smaller forces, such as wind during takeoff and at low altitude, and then only until the pressure difference gets high enough to take all of the force off the bolts. So...window pops out, and pilot starts getting sucked out. His legs got caught on the flight controls, and a flight attendant was able to grab the pilot's belt and hold on. The pilot was getting blown all around by the wind, and the guy holding on was getting bruised by all the motion, and was also getting frostbite. They could also see the pilot's face hitting the window, and saw his eyes were open but not blinking. They assumed he was dead, but decided to keep holding on, out of concern that if they let the body go it might get sucked into an engine and they already had enough problems (pilot's legs were still tangled in the flight controls, and they also could not hear the radios because of the noise from the wind). They did manage to get down OK, and everyone was surprised to find the pilot had survived. He had frostbite, shock, bruising, and broken arm and wrist on one side and thumb on the other. The flight attendant who had held him the most had a dislocated shoulder, and frostbite damage to his face and one eye. This incident was covered in the documentary series "Air Disasters" ("Mayday" in Canada, "Air Crash Investigation" elsewhere). Here's the Wikipedia article on the accident for complete details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_5390 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_5390