June 18, 2019 • 9 mins
Two remarkable individuals are the centerpiece of our tour today, and hopefully their stories will fill you with awe and wonder.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of curiosities. Under the best circumstances, the
(00:29):
odds of dying in a plane crash are one and
twenty million. You're more likely to be struck by lightning
or dye in a car accident than you are to
perish in a malfunctioning airplane. However, no matter how unlikely
the scenario, the fear of falling out of the sky
from thirty thousand feet up is very real, and it's
only amplified by stories like that of Tim Lancaster. Lancaster
(00:53):
was a forty two year old British Airways pilot with
over eleven thousand flight hours under his belt. He was
more than capable of handling a simple flight from Birmingham, England,
to Spain. On June tenth, Tim and his co pilot,
Alistair Atchinson, took a British Airways Flight fifty nine into
the clouds along with eighties seven Precious Souls. Take Off
(01:17):
was perfect. The plane soared skyward for twenty minutes as
it worked its way up. It was only when the
plane reached twenty three thousand feet that everyone started to
realize that this was one of those one in two
hundred million flights. An explosion in the cockpit startled the
passengers and blew the door to the flight deck clean
off its hinges. They saw everything the open window, the
(01:39):
debris and paperwork being sucked out the front of the plane,
and the pilot had gone missing the windscreen. Basically, the
plane's windshield had come loose and flown away completely, deep
pressurizing in the cabin, and the pilot, Tim Lancaster, had
been sucked out through the opening in a matter of seconds.
(01:59):
Another remember bravely ran to the cabin and took a
position in the pilot's seat while Atchinson, the co pilot,
got his bearings. He strapped on an oxygen mask and
told the passengers to hold tight. They were about to
make an emergency landing. He got on the radio to
signal to the closest airport that he needed a place
to land, but the wind whipping through the plane made
(02:21):
hearing anyone at air traffic control almost impossible. Without their confirmation,
Atchinson couldn't begin the emergency landing procedures. After some time, however,
a message from Southampton Airport came through and Atchinson began
his descent towards the runway. He landed the plane without incident,
saving the lives of every single person on board. But
(02:43):
you might be wondering what happened to the pilot, Tim Lancaster.
After all, authorities eventually found the windshield and were able
to deduce what had caused it to separate from the
rest of the plane. An investigation revealed the use of
bolts of varying sizes in securing the windshield to the
flight act, none of which had been strong enough to
handle the changes in pressure between the cabin and the outside,
(03:06):
and Lancaster well, they didn't have to go far to
find him because he'd never left the season pilot had
been sucked out the window, but Atchinson, thinking on his feet,
had grabbed his colleague's ankles and held on with all
his strength until more crew members were able to come
and help him. Being exposed to such strong winds that
(03:27):
that high altitude should have killed him, especially as his
body continued to slide farther outside the cockpits. According to
flight attendant Nigel Ogden, the first crew member to take
over holding the pilot's ankles. Lancaster kept hitting his head
on the fuselage, but letting go of him risked his
body being sucked into one of the engines, which would
bring down the plane even faster and kill everyone on board.
(03:51):
So they held on Ogden, withstanding frost bite and exhaustion,
until Atchinson was able to bring Flight fifty nine safely
to the ground. Not a single passenger or crew member
died in the incident, thanks to some quick thinking by
everyone involved, and although Lancaster also suffered from frostbite and
minor injuries, he was back on the job six months
(04:13):
later with a heck of a story to tell, for sure.
I can't help but wonder though, if he warned people
before he shared the story with them. This one will
give you chills, he must have said, So hold on tight.
(04:40):
It doesn't take a lot to change the world. Just
one small act can set off a chain of events
that could shape the future for generations to come, and
oftentimes those acts occur under durest when there's much to
lose and little to gain in the short term. During Prohibition,
the government took away alcohol across the country under the
belief that they were hearing the nation of abhorrent behavior.
(05:02):
Working class folks turned to bootlegging and hoarding to get by,
and their combined efforts eventually led to the repeal of
the Jaconian law. However, years earlier, it was a Roman
priest who broke the law of the land, and his
rebellion against the empire did more than change the law,
it changed the world. Around two d d at the
(05:25):
height of the rule of Emperor Claudius, the Second Rome
was on a bloody path of war and destruction. Claudius
needed his armies to be bigger and stronger. There was
only one problem. No one wanted to join up. Roman
men at the time had no interest in traveling across
Europe to fight on behalf of a cruel and despotic leader.
(05:46):
Legend has it that Claudius was so strong that he
could knock out a horse's tooth with a single punch.
He had no patience for formalities and positioned himself as
the opposite of the aristocratic emperors that came before him.
He was a soldier through an through, and he expected
his men to follow suit. Because he was a soldier
with deep affinity for the military. He had no time
(06:08):
for silly things like marriage or family life. In fact,
Claudius believed it was the concept of family that was
keeping men from joining his ranks. They were soft and weak,
he said. By getting married and raising children, they were
not living up to their full potential as soldiers of Rome. However,
rather than incentivized new recruits with promises of fame and glory,
(06:28):
you know, positive reinforcement, Claudius took the opposite approach. He
simply banned marriage. It was a harsh move, for sure,
and one that did not go unnoticed by the Church.
A local priest did not agree with this declaration. He
believed people should be able to pursue their love despite
what the emperor thought. Government had no right to deny
(06:50):
what God had already blessed. Although he knew it was illegal,
the priest found a way to rebel against Claudius. He
began performing clandestine marriage ceremonies for Roman couples looking to
build better lives for themselves. Unfortunately, just as had happened
with speakeasies during the prohibition, the authorities found out about
the secret ceremonies taking place right under the Emperor's nose.
(07:15):
They arrested the priest and paraded him in front of
the Prefect of Rome for a trial. Neither his testimony
on true love or his duties as a man of
the cloth made any difference to the Roman courts. He
had defied Emperor Claudius and made a mockery of his position.
The priest's fate had been sealed long before his trial.
(07:35):
He was sentenced to death, which was to be carried
out over a series of beatings and stonings before his
eventual decapitation. Claudius was going to make an example out
of this traitor for anyone else looking to challenge him.
So defiantly. The priest was held in prison for a
short time before his death, and during his stay something
unexpected happened. He found love. Not unlike young couples, he
(08:00):
had married in secret, and despite the obvious barriers keeping
the two apart, their relationship flourished. You see, he had
fallen in love with someone outside his prison cell, the
daughter of one of his jailers. During their brief time
that they had together, they exchanged notes and letters professing
their love for each other all the way up to
(08:21):
the day of the priest's execution. He was beheaded for
his crimes as ordered, and went down in history as
a martyr for his cause on behalf of lovers everywhere.
And it was because of his efforts to stand up
to an unjust and immoral law that he was later
named a saint. And because he died on February, we
(08:42):
remember him on that same day each year, signing letters
and cards to our loved ones with his name, not
ours from your Valentine. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
(09:04):
Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious.
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of curiosities. Under the best circumstances, the
(00:29):
odds of dying in a plane crash are one and
twenty million. You're more likely to be struck by lightning
or dye in a car accident than you are to
perish in a malfunctioning airplane. However, no matter how unlikely
the scenario, the fear of falling out of the sky
from thirty thousand feet up is very real, and it's
only amplified by stories like that of Tim Lancaster. Lancaster
(00:53):
was a forty two year old British Airways pilot with
over eleven thousand flight hours under his belt. He was
more than capable of handling a simple flight from Birmingham, England,
to Spain. On June tenth, Tim and his co pilot,
Alistair Atchinson, took a British Airways Flight fifty nine into
the clouds along with eighties seven Precious Souls. Take Off
(01:17):
was perfect. The plane soared skyward for twenty minutes as
it worked its way up. It was only when the
plane reached twenty three thousand feet that everyone started to
realize that this was one of those one in two
hundred million flights. An explosion in the cockpit startled the
passengers and blew the door to the flight deck clean
off its hinges. They saw everything the open window, the
(01:39):
debris and paperwork being sucked out the front of the plane,
and the pilot had gone missing the windscreen. Basically, the
plane's windshield had come loose and flown away completely, deep
pressurizing in the cabin, and the pilot, Tim Lancaster, had
been sucked out through the opening in a matter of seconds.
(01:59):
Another remember bravely ran to the cabin and took a
position in the pilot's seat while Atchinson, the co pilot,
got his bearings. He strapped on an oxygen mask and
told the passengers to hold tight. They were about to
make an emergency landing. He got on the radio to
signal to the closest airport that he needed a place
to land, but the wind whipping through the plane made
(02:21):
hearing anyone at air traffic control almost impossible. Without their confirmation,
Atchinson couldn't begin the emergency landing procedures. After some time, however,
a message from Southampton Airport came through and Atchinson began
his descent towards the runway. He landed the plane without incident,
saving the lives of every single person on board. But
(02:43):
you might be wondering what happened to the pilot, Tim Lancaster.
After all, authorities eventually found the windshield and were able
to deduce what had caused it to separate from the
rest of the plane. An investigation revealed the use of
bolts of varying sizes in securing the windshield to the
flight act, none of which had been strong enough to
handle the changes in pressure between the cabin and the outside,
(03:06):
and Lancaster well, they didn't have to go far to
find him because he'd never left the season pilot had
been sucked out the window, but Atchinson, thinking on his feet,
had grabbed his colleague's ankles and held on with all
his strength until more crew members were able to come
and help him. Being exposed to such strong winds that
(03:27):
that high altitude should have killed him, especially as his
body continued to slide farther outside the cockpits. According to
flight attendant Nigel Ogden, the first crew member to take
over holding the pilot's ankles. Lancaster kept hitting his head
on the fuselage, but letting go of him risked his
body being sucked into one of the engines, which would
bring down the plane even faster and kill everyone on board.
(03:51):
So they held on Ogden, withstanding frost bite and exhaustion,
until Atchinson was able to bring Flight fifty nine safely
to the ground. Not a single passenger or crew member
died in the incident, thanks to some quick thinking by
everyone involved, and although Lancaster also suffered from frostbite and
minor injuries, he was back on the job six months
(04:13):
later with a heck of a story to tell, for sure.
I can't help but wonder though, if he warned people
before he shared the story with them. This one will
give you chills, he must have said, So hold on tight.
(04:40):
It doesn't take a lot to change the world. Just
one small act can set off a chain of events
that could shape the future for generations to come, and
oftentimes those acts occur under durest when there's much to
lose and little to gain in the short term. During Prohibition,
the government took away alcohol across the country under the
belief that they were hearing the nation of abhorrent behavior.
(05:02):
Working class folks turned to bootlegging and hoarding to get by,
and their combined efforts eventually led to the repeal of
the Jaconian law. However, years earlier, it was a Roman
priest who broke the law of the land, and his
rebellion against the empire did more than change the law,
it changed the world. Around two d d at the
(05:25):
height of the rule of Emperor Claudius, the Second Rome
was on a bloody path of war and destruction. Claudius
needed his armies to be bigger and stronger. There was
only one problem. No one wanted to join up. Roman
men at the time had no interest in traveling across
Europe to fight on behalf of a cruel and despotic leader.
(05:46):
Legend has it that Claudius was so strong that he
could knock out a horse's tooth with a single punch.
He had no patience for formalities and positioned himself as
the opposite of the aristocratic emperors that came before him.
He was a soldier through an through, and he expected
his men to follow suit. Because he was a soldier
with deep affinity for the military. He had no time
(06:08):
for silly things like marriage or family life. In fact,
Claudius believed it was the concept of family that was
keeping men from joining his ranks. They were soft and weak,
he said. By getting married and raising children, they were
not living up to their full potential as soldiers of Rome. However,
rather than incentivized new recruits with promises of fame and glory,
(06:28):
you know, positive reinforcement, Claudius took the opposite approach. He
simply banned marriage. It was a harsh move, for sure,
and one that did not go unnoticed by the Church.
A local priest did not agree with this declaration. He
believed people should be able to pursue their love despite
what the emperor thought. Government had no right to deny
(06:50):
what God had already blessed. Although he knew it was illegal,
the priest found a way to rebel against Claudius. He
began performing clandestine marriage ceremonies for Roman couples looking to
build better lives for themselves. Unfortunately, just as had happened
with speakeasies during the prohibition, the authorities found out about
the secret ceremonies taking place right under the Emperor's nose.
(07:15):
They arrested the priest and paraded him in front of
the Prefect of Rome for a trial. Neither his testimony
on true love or his duties as a man of
the cloth made any difference to the Roman courts. He
had defied Emperor Claudius and made a mockery of his position.
The priest's fate had been sealed long before his trial.
(07:35):
He was sentenced to death, which was to be carried
out over a series of beatings and stonings before his
eventual decapitation. Claudius was going to make an example out
of this traitor for anyone else looking to challenge him.
So defiantly. The priest was held in prison for a
short time before his death, and during his stay something
unexpected happened. He found love. Not unlike young couples, he
(08:00):
had married in secret, and despite the obvious barriers keeping
the two apart, their relationship flourished. You see, he had
fallen in love with someone outside his prison cell, the
daughter of one of his jailers. During their brief time
that they had together, they exchanged notes and letters professing
their love for each other all the way up to
(08:21):
the day of the priest's execution. He was beheaded for
his crimes as ordered, and went down in history as
a martyr for his cause on behalf of lovers everywhere.
And it was because of his efforts to stand up
to an unjust and immoral law that he was later
named a saint. And because he died on February, we
(08:42):
remember him on that same day each year, signing letters
and cards to our loved ones with his name, not
ours from your Valentine. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
(09:04):
Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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