March 26, 2025 • 62 mins
When the cockpit windscreen of British Airways Flight 5390 suddenly blows out at 17,300 feet, a routine morning flight turns into an unimaginable nightmare. With the captain partially ejected from the aircraft and facing the full force of sub-zero winds, co-pilot Alastair Atchison and the cabin crew find themselves in a desperate race against time. As the plane begins to dive through some of the busiest air lanes in Europe, they must make split-second decisions that will determine the fate of all 87 souls on board.
Sources:
Mayday: Air Crash Investigation documentary series, Season 2, Episode 1, titled "Blow Out"
Official Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report
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Credits:
Final Boarding Call is hosted by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas, researched and written by Alice Stern, produced and edited by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alice (00:00):
Picture this.
an airliner full of passengers out ofcontrol at 17,000 feet, and the pilot is
outside of the airplane in the cockpit.
Terrified flight attendantsare clinging to his legs.
If he slips from their grasp, thecaptain's body could be sucked into the
(00:21):
engine and bring down the whole plane.
At the controls, a youngco-pilot is fighting to get the
aircraft to the nearest airport.
The lives of 87 passengers and creware hanging by a thread we're about to
experience what happens when the personflying your plane suddenly finds himself
(00:42):
on the wrong side of the windshield?
So stow your tray tables, fastenyour seat belts, and prepare for
some extreme turbulence becausethis is final boarding call.
Hello and welcome to Final Boarding Call.
I am your disaster obsessed host.
Alice and I am joined by myreluctant homebody husband, Zach.
(01:09):
Zach, say hi to the people.
Hello, everyone.
Before we dive in, a quick reminder toour listeners, please rate, review, and
subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, everybody buckle up.
Because today's story is trulyone of the most unbelievable
aviation incidents in history.
(01:29):
, it's honestly one of the most jawdropping flying stories of all time.
One that is still hard tobelieve even decades later.
This episode is based on extensiveresearch from multiple sources,
but my primary source is mayday AirCrash Investigation, which I love.
(01:50):
Specifically season two, episodeone, which is titled Blowout.
All resources will bereferenced in the show notes.
Alright, Zach, are you ready to dive in?
I'm ready.
I think the people, whoever may.
Listen to this.
If anybody ever, they would just findit incredibly ironic how often you
(02:12):
fly and you're obsessed with crashes.
I know.
I guess I didn't explain that.
Yeah.
I fly two to three times a month.
I'm usually on an airplane fourto six times every single month.
So that's, that's like a, apretty decent amount of flying.
Today I flew, actually, I came homefrom Dallas and I'm writing another
(02:33):
episode while I am on my airplane.
And the stewardess waswalking by just like.
what are you doing?
Are you insane?
So the answer is yes.
You are in fact insane.
Oh my gosh.
I know.
When I was in college and I was studyingmarketing, my, my original plan was to be,
like a crisis pr, director for an airline.
(02:54):
So I've always been reallyinto airline disasters.
I don't know why it's kinda sick.
Okay, let's jump into our story.
June 10th, 1990.
A beautiful Sunday morningin Birmingham, England
for the crew of British Airways.
(03:14):
Flight 53 90 heading to Malaga, Spain.
It began like any other day, old friendsabout to do a job that they love.
Flight attendants, Nigel Ogden and SimonRogers, along with stewardess Sue Gibbons
had worked together on and off for years.
They were an experienced, capableteam that took pride in its work.
(03:38):
As Nigel would later recall, atBirmingham, all the cabin crew and all
of the pilots, they all knew each other.
We were all on first name terms.
Simon was a good friend ofmine anyway because we'd just
go out for a beer or a curry.
Everybody was friendly to everybodyelse, and I love the English.
(04:00):
That's the best.
I feel like in America it'd be like,ah, she was going for my promotion.
The one new member of the group wasAlistair Atchison, an experienced
co-pilot who'd just driven downfrom Manchester That morning.
He was about to meet CaptainTim Lancaster, a veteran with
21 years of experience as acommercial pilot, and over 11.
(04:26):
Thousand flight hours under his belt.
That's a lot of flying.
It's like a lot of flying.
The plane, they'd be flyingwas BAC one 11, sometimes
called the Jeep of the skies.
I don't know how you feel about that.
Everybody knows my distaste for Jeeps, soI don't know if they do, but now they do.
(04:47):
Okay.
Well, I think they meant it ina positive way because it was a
workhorse known for being easy tomaintain with a good safety record.
So you gotta remember,this is the early nineties.
This is back when Jeepswere like indestructible.
You could throw your Jeep off theside of a mountain, drive it home.
Good old four liters, I mean, truly.
(05:08):
So for those unfamiliar with thisaircraft, it's a twin engine narrow
body jet liner that was smaller thantoday's Boeing seven 30 sevens imagine
like a regional jet that typicallycarried around 80 to a hundred passengers
on shorter routes within Europe.
Zach and I live, in Colorado Springs.
(05:30):
And we often fly from ColoradoSprings to Denver to like
make a connection somewhere.
So this is similar to thosetypes of airplanes that we
take a little bit smaller.
The aircraft had 81 passengers onboard, along with six crew members.
Before takeoff.
Captain Lancaster looked througha maintenance log, noting that the
(05:54):
plane had just come out of maintenancethe day before the work seemed
routine, just a windshield change.
Nothing to worry about.
Or was it, that's foreshadowing.
Now when we say windshield, we're talkingabout the cockpit windows, those huge
curved panels of glass that are infront of the plane that give the pilots,
(06:18):
they're viewed to the outside world.
So unlike the small passenger windowsthat we all look out of when we're
flying, these windscreens, they arehuge, super heavily reinforced, and
they are designed to withstand extremeconditions because obviously they are
getting all of that front on wind ofa plane traveling incredibly quickly.
(06:41):
They are designed to take wind, birdstrikes, temperature variations.
At least they are supposed to be.
Meanwhile, while our captains aregetting settled and they're going
through the maintenance logs,passengers were boarding this flight.
Many of them were looking forwardto a relaxing trip to Spain.
(07:05):
And I cannot blame them becauseI, ugh, what I would give
for a relaxing trip in Spain.
Nothing but you wouldgive for a relaxing trip.
You know, counting Crows, they have asong called Holiday in Spain and I could
really use a holiday in Spain, so I'mjust gonna gonna have that song playing
in the background of this episode.
One of the passengers was a womantraveling to meet her mother and sister
(07:30):
for a girl's week holiday, another wasreturning to Spain to see grandchildren.
These are completely ordinarypeople that are expecting to be
on a completely ordinary flight.
Do you ever think about thatwhen you're boarding a plane?
Like what people are expecting Yes.
And where they're going?
(07:50):
Yes.
Like what their story is.
You know, we're all getting on this plane.
We are all assuming this is justgoing to be a routine normal flight.
Are we all going to have to like saveeach other at some point on this?
I don't know.
Maybe I do because I writean aviation disaster podcast.
Okay.
And I don't even have to think aboutwhat people are doing because I just
talk to 'em and end up in their weddings.
(08:13):
No.
I don't wanna talk toanybody on a, on a plane.
I immediately put my headphones inand have, do not talk to me face on.
And Zach will make friends with everybodyon that plane by the time we get off.
It's so charming and so annoying.
All right, well on this flight.
The passengers are getting settled in.
(08:34):
They went through theusual pre-flight routine.
The flight attendants are demonstratingthe safety procedures while predictably,
no passengers pay attention.
One passenger leader recalledseeing another traveler casually
reading the times during the safetydemonstration, because this is pre
iPad, most people were not payingattention because typically they'd
(09:00):
all flown before and they consideredeverything to be routine, right?
Always pay attention to the safetydemonstrations folks always at
approximately 7:20 AM local time.
So this here's.
You know, an early-ish flight.
I take my, my usual flight I take is at6:00 AM So seven 20 sounds like a dream.
(09:24):
British Airways flight 53 90 began itstakeoff roll co-pilot Atchison handled the
takeoff and as the plane climbed throughthe morning sky, captain Lancaster made a
brief announcement, ladies and gentlemen.
Well, he has an accent.
Ladies and gentlemen, thisis, that was like really bad.
(09:47):
Cockney.
I'm sorry.
Ladies and gentlemen, this isyour captain speaking my name.
Tim Lancaster, welcome aboard thisBritish Airways flight to Spain.
The plane was climbing steadily towardits cruising altitude of 23,000 feet.
They expected to be in Spain In just overtwo hours, the aircraft reached 17,300
(10:11):
feet and the pilots engaged the autopilot.
Captain Lancaster removed hisshoulder straps and he loosened his
seatbelt as they settled in for whatshould have been a routine flight.
Should have been.
Should have been.
It's not gonna be for those who aren'tfamiliar with the cockpit of an airplane.
(10:32):
Let me explain The restraintsystems that pilots use.
There are typically two components.
There is the lap belt, which works justlike the seat belts that passengers
use, and there are shoulder harnesses.
And those resemble the upperportion of a car's seat belt.
(10:52):
So the shoulder straps are crucialduring takeoff and landing, but
typically pilots loosen them duringthe cruise for comfort and so that
they can reach controls more easily.
So we are 13 minutes now aftertakeoff and flight attendant, Nigel
Ogden entered the cockpit to ask thepilots what they'd like to drink.
(11:14):
The pilots requested tea because theyare classy, and Nigel mentioned their
breakfast would be ready in a few minutes.
I love this.
They're literally gettinglike a hot breakfast and tea.
What a dream.
It's now 7:33 AM the aircraft wasclimbing through 17,300 feet, just
5,000 feet from their assigned altitude.
(11:37):
But then in a split second, everythingchanged with a huge explosion.
The captain's windshield blewout completely into the sky.
Kaboom like big kaboom.
Almost immediately a white fogformed throughout the cabin.
That's what happens when there'sa sudden drop in pressure and
(11:58):
moisture in the air condenses.
It's kind of like what happens whenyou open your freezer door on a humid
day, and then you just see that likecloud of mist come out of it when I
suppose when you're at 17,000 feet,you're up in the clouds anyway that
are gonna be freaking freezing.
Freaking freezing.
Freaking freezing.
Yes.
Very cold.
I'm gonna take just a second to kindof explain cabin pressurization,
(12:21):
because we've all heard, like, oh,when the cabin pressure changes,
the little oxygen mask will drop.
But what actually does that mean?
So, commercial aircraft flight ataltitudes where the air is too thin for
humans to breathe, often above 30,000 feetZach and I have been above 14,000 feet
because we live in Colorado and we havebeen to like the top of Pike's Peak, and
(12:45):
I've hiked a couple fourteeners and it isextremely hard to breathe at 14,000 feet.
So yeah, 30,000 feet.
Forget about it.
At these heights, the outsideair pressure is about a third of
what we experience at sea level.
To keep everybody conscious is critical.
(13:07):
The aircraft maintains a higherpressure inside the cabin, then outside,
typically equivalent to the pressure.
At like 6,000 to 8,000feet above sea level.
So like nice sounds easy for us.
We live there.
I mean, yes, like we're groovy.
We just can cruise there.
(13:29):
This pressure difference meansthat air is constantly trying to
escape from inside the plane tolower pressure environment outside.
It's like air rushing out of a balloonas soon as you let go of the opening.
So when a sudden breach occurs inthe aircraft, you opened the balloon.
(13:51):
That rush of air canbe incredibly violent.
what aviation experts callexplosive decompression.
One passenger described feeling anintense stomach and body shaking, thud,
followed by the plane starting to jutter.
Many initially thoughta bomb had exploded.
(14:15):
Is that what pushed thewindshield out in the first place?
Is the change in pressure?
They just replaced the windshieldand then the inside pressure
was trying to push outside.
I love this.
So you guys, um, Zach's a mechanic,but he is not just a mechanic.
He's like.
Brilliant engineer mind, kind of mechanic.
So you are already gettinginto the meat of this, my love.
(14:40):
We are going to go through a wholeinvestigation about exactly what
happened, but you just keep marinatingon on that thought right now.
We need to figure out what's gonnahappen with this plane because
it's still in the air and like
crazy things are happening.
What happened in the nextfew seconds was pure chaos.
(15:00):
The explosive decompression createda pressure difference that acted
like a giant vacuum cleaner.
So at Cruising altitude, the pressureinside an aircraft is maintained at
around eight pounds per square inch.
While outside it's about 3.5
pounds.
This difference is what keepseveryone comfortable, but it also
(15:24):
means that air is constantly tryingto escape from inside the plane.
Captain Tim Lancaster, who hadloosened his seatbelt, do we remember
that when he loosened his seatbelt?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Well, he was violently suckedtoward the opening where the
windshield had been like a vacuum.
(15:46):
The 310 mile per hour windpunched him through the hole.
His upper body was forced outof the aircraft while his legs
caught on the flight controls.
That's insane.
His upper body out, his legsconnected just by chance.
To, to the flight controls.
(16:09):
And that is the only thing keepinghim from being completely ejected.
Right.
So he's kind of being foldedlike a lawn chair but backwards.
Yes, he kind of is.
And then what's worse is that becausehis legs are connected to the controls
and he's being forced kind of upand out, he now has the plane stuck
(16:30):
into an a dive because he is jammedthe controls in a forward position.
You know, I picture that.
In a straight nose dive of a plane.
The last place I wanna be is on the nose.
Yeah, no, it's like super, super bad.
And in the process of all of this,just to make it better, he also
(16:51):
accidentally disconnected the autopilot.
So guy, learn how to use your feet.
Oh my God.
Poor Tim.
Poor caption Tim.
All right.
So I'm gonna super quick explain whatthe control column is because it's, it's
important with his legs tangled in it.
So obviously it's the steering wheel of anaircraft, but it does not look like that.
(17:16):
It looks more like a joystick or a yoke.
And when it's pushed forward,it points the nose of the plane.
Down.
Down.
And when it is pulled backwardstowards your body, towards a
person, then the plane goes up.
Up, correct with the captain'slegs jammed against it.
(17:38):
The plane was now headed downward.
In a completely uncontrolled dissent.
So all of a sudden our co-pilot, AlistairAtchison, finds himself fighting for
control in hurricane force winds.
There is no time to think about thecaptain who is now half outside the
(18:00):
aircraft, his body just exposed tothe elements at more than 17,000 feet.
That's nuts.
The throttles are jammed forward,increasing the speed to nearly 400
miles per hour in a dive is thatwhy there was that speed increase?
Is just because they're also in that.
(18:23):
Descent there, you're just picking upspeed rapidly as you're falling basically.
Yes.
They free.
Yes.
They're free falling at that point.
Yes, yes.
Yeah.
With thrust.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, they were going fast beforebut now they're going just like
stupid fast, so throttles obviouslyare the controls that determine
how much power the engines produce.
(18:44):
Similar to an acceleratorpedal in your car.
With these pushed to themaximum setting, the plane is
essentially gas pedal to the floor.
So not only are we in a divedown, but now we are flooring it.
Going as quick as we can down.
(19:04):
Well, we're going down.
Down.
Oh boy.
Meanwhile, our poor flight attendant,Nigel, witnessed the unthinkable.
So he peeks into the flighttech and he sees this insanity.
He said, all I could seewas Tim out the window.
(19:27):
I'm like, that is so scary.
It's so bad.
Without hesitation,Nigel jumped into action.
This man is , who I want in a crisis.
I have so much respect for Nigel.
He put one foot on the captain's foot.
Well.
And the other one downthe side of his seat.
(19:51):
And Nigel just held onto him beforehe got sucked out completely.
So Nigel's now holding ontothe captain for dear life.
Outside a 390 to 400 mile per hourblast of wind at, negative 2.6
degrees Fahrenheit, that is minus17 degrees Celsius was smashing into
(20:14):
Captain Tim Lancaster's body justannihilating this poor man, the bone
chilling, cold and violent forceis dang near impossible to endure.
Like that's, that's crazy.
To put this into perspective, thiskind of temperature is about the
(20:34):
temperature inside your freezer.
I'm still hung up on the mile anhour because just from days in riding
motorcycles, they said that if youwere going about 200 miles an hour.
If you stuck your head up abovethe windscreen, made yourself a
little less aerodynamic, you wouldbe just ripped off the motorcycle.
(20:57):
It's like equivalent to like an Fthree hurricane or something like that?
Yes.
I mean, you're, you're spot on.
Like we have to think theseconditions are completely nuts.
And they have no visibility of him.
He is like outside of theplane and they are just holding
onto this poor man's legs.
For all they know, all there is is legs.
(21:19):
That's okay.
Yes.
That's what I would be thinking.
I would be like, uh.
There's gonna not be the restof a human being attached
to this part that I can see.
Captain, are you okay?
Oh, the captain is not.
Okay.
Obviously as we just heard,he's having a very bad time.
(21:39):
The tornado raging through the cockpitwas giving Atchison major problems.
So this is our co-pilot now.
He's obviously having some seriousissues controlling the aircraft.
Here's the irony.
This poor man is trying to tellair traffic control what is
(22:00):
happening, but because he's in ahurricane, they can't hear him.
They can't hear him.
He is alone on this island.
The plane is diving through some ofthe busiest airplanes in the world.
This is like the highway, theinterstate of the air, and he is just
(22:27):
in a nose, dive through this thing.
The situation could not havebeen more desperate, period.
He's, he's being that terribledriver that's cutting from the
far left lane all the way to,oh, I need to exit 10 feet ago.
Come on Atchison, get it together.
My guy.
We're not gonna shamethe hero of this story.
(22:47):
Okay.
In the cabin, Nigel sounds like the hero.
He's, oh my god, we love Nigel too.
In the cabin, passengers wereexperiencing an absolute nightmare.
One remembered we were just diving really?
And then it started to jutter.
I feel like this is like acool English word that we don't
(23:08):
use, that they like using.
Yeah.
The is not, because this, this is nowthe second quote that has the term Judah.
I just feel so tery.
And here is everybody's worst fear.
One of their worst fears on a plane.
The oxygen masks come down.
Those never come down.
And it's like confetti andit's like surprise prize.
(23:31):
It.
We're celebrating Jan's birthday.
No, the oxygen mask come down and you'relike, we're gonna die on this airplane.
As the plane continues, its rapid descent.
Captain Lancaster remained pinnedto the outside of the aircraft by
the force of the wind enduringconditions that are just unbelievable.
(23:54):
Like, unimaginable, unfathomable.
I hate wind.
I step outside and it's a little bitwindy and I don't wanna walk my dog.
This dude, like, I cannot, I cannotwrap my brain around what this,
what's happening to this guy.
From the cabin lead steward,John Hayward saw the chaos in the
(24:20):
cockpit, and we have another hero.
This story's full of heroes.
So the flight deck door had fallenforward and was now trapped between
the doorframe and the throttles.
Geez.
So just like more, more chaosis happening on this plane.
(24:41):
John had to stamp on it twice before itbroke into pieces, allowing him to enter.
It's just like nothing.
Nothing can go.
Right.
And then suddenly a doorsplinter shoots out the window.
Yeah.
Right now And lodged itself in No, no, no.
That's the end of the door.
Looking for any way to help Johnnoticed the observer's seat on
(25:03):
the wall of the flight deck.
This is.
So smart.
He put his arms through theseatbelt to create an anchor.
An anchor.
He created an anchor point giving themall something more stable to hold onto.
So think about this.
Nigel and John are now creatingbasically a human chain, trying
(25:27):
to hold onto the pilot's legs.
And John has latched himself tothis seatbelt to create an anchor.
It's, it's brilliant.
The observer seat for those thatare unfamiliar with cockpit layouts
is an extra seat in the cockpit.
It's meant for instructors,check pilots, other crew members.
I think it's also referred to asa jump seat, but don't quote me on
(25:50):
that, because I do not work in theairline industry, but I do believe
that sometimes it's called a jump seat.
I learned that from the excellent movie.
Catch Me if you can.
Okay.
Which is, you know, I don't think I shouldbe getting factual airline information
from woof, copilot Atchison who hadnever flown with this crew before.
(26:14):
Do you remember that?
This was, they all were homies.
They all knew each otherexcept for this outsider.
And then this poor copilot is brandnew to the gang, and now all of
a sudden he's in this situation.
It's just wild.
Maybe that's why this happened.
That was just like their test.
Can you hang.
(26:35):
Yeah.
Well this is their initiationare you cool enough to go get
frozen yogurt with us later?
I don't know.
Okay.
You can't sit with us.
You can't sit with us.
Copilot Atchison is not going to,technically sit with them right
now because he has to leave themto their own devices and focus
on getting the plane to safety.
(26:55):
So he really cannot be dealing withthe captain out the window situation.
So he gets full control of thethrottles because John and Nigel
are able to wrench the captain'sfeet away from the control column.
So between the two of 'em and the anchorpoint, they're able to figure that out.
(27:16):
So that's wonderful.
That's step one.
Step one.
No longer have to go 400 miles an hour.
That's, thank you.
Down, straight down.
So that's good.
But instead of slowing down,Atchison decided to continue
the rapid descent gasp.
How dare he What is up his sleeve?
(27:37):
Don't worry, you guys.
This was a calculated decision.
It would quickly take him outof the way of other air traffic.
Remember he's in the middle of thecrazy intersection and bring the
aircraft to a lower altitude whereoxygen equipment wouldn't be needed.
So huge props to Atchison because thereare two major issues happening right now.
(28:01):
One, a mid-air collision, whichwould be absolutely catastrophic.
And two, the people on theplane cannot breathe right now.
Mm.
Those are two significant problems.
So I also cannot breathe.
Sorry for anybody that hears me sniffle,and I wish we could be like, oh,
it's just like he's not feeling good.
(28:23):
It'll be better.
It won't.
This is just how Zach breathes.
It's just the sound of him.
Alright.
So Atchison being so smart, hetakes us down to a lower elevation.
He's got oxygen on the brain.
staying too long at high elevation riskedoxygen starvation, , especially since
this aircraft is a little older, andit wasn't fully equipped with oxygen
(28:46):
for all passengers At high altitudes,there is not enough oxygen in the
air for humans to remain conscious.
The higher you go the less time you have.
At 18,000 feet, you might have 20 to30 minutes without supplemental oxygen.
At 25,000 feet, that drops to threeto five minutes above 30,000 feet.
(29:07):
Forget it, you got likeless than a minute.
While passenger oxygen masks providetemporary protection, they are typically
designed to last only long enough.
For the plane to descendto breathable altitude.
That is a little known airline fact folks.
(29:28):
Mm-hmm.
That oxygen mask is not gonnakeep people alive forever.
Okay.
You put the mask on and it hasenough oxygen in it to keep you going
for about 15 minutes, typically.
So it is critical that pilots getdown to a lower altitude very quickly.
(29:49):
The air spade indicator wentinto the red as they plummeted,
just sirens going crazy.
The airplane is like, what are you doing?
Why are you doing this?
I am not meant to do this.
In the cabin poor flight attendants, SueGibbons and Simon Rogers, who were trying
(30:12):
to prepare the passengers for what theyfully believed would be an emergency
landing, if they were lucky enough tomake it to like a quote unquote landing.
So they're dealing withthe chaos in the cabin.
The plane dived to 11,000feet in just two and a half.
Minutes.
Well, that doesn't sound as dramaticin my head as I was picturing it.
(30:35):
I mean, obviously it is, but you saidthey were at 17,300 or something?
Yes.
And they got down to, 11in two and a half minutes.
Okay.
Yeah, but I mean, that's, so that's thesteep descent, but that's not like, no.
Straight down kinda stuff.
I, I wouldn't like to do that.
I'll put it that way.
I don't wanna be on aplane that's doing that.
(30:56):
That would freak me out.
Okay.
I would enjoy doingthat if it was planned.
If it was supposed to be that way.
Yeah.
Sure.
Sure.
Yeah.
I don't really like falling, so I'm justgonna opt outta that whole activity.
As they leveled out and slowedto 170 miles per hour, which is,
(31:16):
that's a big slow down there.
That, thank you.
I was waiting for somesort of reaction from you.
Yes.
We called that a heartbreak.
The captain's body was no longer pinned tothe roof by the force of the wind, and it
slid around to now the side of the plane.
Working his way from the back of thecabin, Stuart Simon Rogers now caught
(31:38):
sight of the cockpit for the firsttime, and what he saw was beyond
anything he could have imagined.
Nigel who had been holding ontothe captain with all his strength,
was beginning to lose his grip.
His arms were aching terribly, buthe was determined not to let go
until he was sure that the captainwouldn't fly out of the window.
(31:59):
The stress on the flightattendants was enormous.
They were all terrified.
They were wondering if Tim would die if hewas already dead, if they would all die.
And they knew it was up to Atchisonto fly the plane and up to the three
of them to hold on to this man.
What the crew witnessednext was really horrifying.
(32:22):
The captain's arms were flailingwildly outside of the aircraft.
Yeah, I could picture that.
I love driving down the interstatewith my window down and you know,
putting an open palm out there.
Yeah.
And then just feeling that windresistance even at, you know, 85 or 90
miles an hour, that'll just rip yourarm back if you're actually limp limb.
(32:47):
That's brutal.
The captain's eyes were wide open, butun blinking even as his face smashed
repeatedly against the side screen.
The terrible realization hit them.
They believed he was dead.
Nigel was reaching his physicallimits and told the others that
he couldn't hold on any longer.
(33:07):
He had lost all feeling in his arms.
I mean, I, it's so cold,like the wind is hitting you.
He's holding on to this poor guy.
, I can't believe he heldon as long as he did.
But in any case, what thismeans, like any good organized
team, they had to reorganize.
So Simon sat in the jump seatand he fastened himself in, which
(33:30):
makes him like a human anchor.
He's not just like arm.
Through.
He is strapped in, they hooked thecaptain's feet over the back of the
captain's seat and Simon put hishands on top holding his ankles down.
So like, that's a sight,it's like a wheelbarrow game.
(33:51):
You know, it's, I should not belaughing 'cause this is so fucked.
Um, but it's kind of like that.
Ugh.
I laugh because it's terrible.
Meanwhile, in the passenger cabin,people were terrified and confused.
When one passenger asked a flightattendant what was happening,
they received the shocking replythat the captain might be dead.
(34:15):
Now I've got, it's a heck ofa way to deliver that news.
I gotta say.
I'm not sure, but thecaptain might be dead.
Oh my gosh.
Is, is that the best way to deliver that?
I don't know.
It's not the way I woulddo it, I'm gonna be honest.
Okay.
And obviously the passengerwas stunned by this news.
(34:37):
Just minutes earlier they had heard thatcaptain welcoming them aboard, describing
a lovely day the blue skies encouragingthem to relax and enjoy the flight.
You gotta think they are notthat long into this flight.
It's like, yeah.
What's the total time roughlyat this point, if we know?
So the flight took off at seven 20.
(35:01):
At 7 33 is when the windshield blew out.
13 minutes after takeoff.
And all of this happened.
Very, very quickly.
Yeah, but just then you add that to drop.
I mean, they're like 18 minutes in max.
Yeah, we're between 15 and 18 minutes.
So yeah, the passengersare pretty stunned.
Simon and Copilot.
(35:22):
Atchison now faced one oftheir most difficult decisions.
What do they do with thelifeless body of their caption?
No words were spoken, but for amoment the thought passed between
them that perhaps the best thingto do would just be to let him go.
But Atchison made his decision.
No.
Hold onto him.
(35:43):
Don't worry, don't, don't go.
Oh, because this was notan act of compassion.
There's a very practicalreason that he said this.
Now remember he has transitionedfrom being on top to the side.
What would Gravity do?
Take it to the engine.
Boom, baby.
Our poor captain would've likelybeen sucked into the engine.
(36:06):
So he could have either damagedthe wing with like crazy force.
I mean, you gotta think the, thewing is used to like small birds, a
fricking human flying, really fast.
Bird strikes are still crazy dangerous.
So it's true, like a big bird willfuck up an airplane, as we know
by an episode that we'll probablycover at some point in the future.
(36:29):
Him getting sucked into the engine wouldbe catastrophic, absolutely catastrophic.
So we wanted to avoid.
That from happening, and thatis why they continue to hold on.
Can't let the captainruin their day twice.
Oh my,
woo.
Oh no.
Copilot Atchison had managedto get the plane down to 11,000
(36:53):
feet without the captain to help.
He was operating the aircraftsystems from memory and navigating
around Heathrow some of the mostcongested airspace in the world.
So you gotta think about this.
Typically in a cockpit, you havethe pilot, you have a copilot, and
one of them is doing steering andcontrols and whatnot, and the other
(37:16):
one has like a manual or is looking.
Things up and checking other things.
It's like seeing radar,all kinds of stuff.
A hundred percent.
Zach and I, , are hobby,race, car drivers.
And you know, this makes me think ofrally, like a really good rally team.
You got a driver and you got somebodywho's like doing the navigating.
Oh.
(37:37):
And poor Atchison has a nobody.
He's flying literally solo afterseven minutes out of contact with
the ground, he was finally able tohear air traffic control speed.
Bird 5 3 90.
Can you accept landing in SouthHampton as Atchison replied?
I'm familiar with Gatwick.
(37:57):
Would appreciate Gatwick.
Atchison wanted to land at Gatwick Airportas he'd flown there many times before.
But South Hampton was closer andeven though he'd never flown there,
he knew he had to get down fast.
The trouble was all of the mapsand charts had blown out of
(38:19):
the window with the captain.
Only the air trafficcontroller could guide him.
Now he turned the plane,that was our pit bull.
They are like theloudest sis in the world.
Okay.
So he only had the help of theair traffic controller to guide
(38:41):
him, but he does end up turningthe plane towards South Hampton.
, for those that are unfamiliarwith aviation pilots rely
heavily on aeronautical charts.
I'm glad I nailed that one.
Specialized maps that showrunways, navigation aids, terrain
features, airspace, boundaries.
They are basically a pilot's equivalentto roadmaps, but they're way more
(39:04):
detailed, way more complex, take, youknow, training to read and understand.
But without these crucial referencesat Jacin was essentially driving
in an unfamiliar city without anyGPS or a map just going for it.
Shooting his shot.
At least he didn't have any stoplights.
I.
(39:25):
Oh my God, at least always lookingon the bright side, you air traffic
controller Andy Rundel took over.
Speed bird 5 3 90 identified onhandover from London Radar six miles
east of South Hampton Airfield.
That's what Andy said, butit was in a British accent.
(39:46):
When Atchison spoke, thestress in his voice was.
Freaking obvious because this dudehad had a time, Rundel recalled
that he was obviously under a fairbit of pressure, like I should say.
So yeah, bud.
The controller asked for more information.
What is your number of persons on board?
We have 84 passengers on board.
(40:08):
I've been advised it's apressurization failure.
Is that the only problemthe controller inquired?
They might have one or two other problems.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And Atache's response leftthe controller stunned.
The captain is half out the airplane.
I believe he's
(40:28):
later described his reactionas one of complete disbelief.
This was something that you see in films.
But you really neversee this in real life.
Sison requested emergencyfacilities for the captain.
He's reaffirming that and he, he's sayingthat they're gonna need an ambulance
waiting for them when they land.
(40:49):
Atchison asked, could you confirmthat the length of runway at South
Hampton is acceptable for BAC one 11?
Yes, it is acceptable.
Replied the controller promising toprovide the figure shortly, as long
as we have at least 2,500 meters.
I am happy said Atchison.
I cannot believe that he is like so calm.
(41:11):
, but the controller bad news.
I'm afraid we have a maximum of 1800.
Nice.
So it di brakes hard.
This is bad.
This is a real serious concern.
The plane was above its maximum landingweight being full of fuel because it
(41:31):
was only in the air for 20 minutes.
So it's already way, way heavy.
And then, it can't dumpfuel like larger aircraft.
So if the runway wasn't long enough,Atchison phased the possibility that
the aircraft will not be able to stop.
The tires might burst, or they couldjust go right off the end of the
(41:53):
runway to make a really bad day.
Even worse.
Larger aircraft often have theability to dump fuel which feels
very bad for the environment to me,but I like, who am I a question?
That's the next generation'sissue as long as we live.
Um, yeah.
I don't love it anyway.
I understand stand why it's necessaryfor like emergency landings,
(42:15):
but it's still totally crazy.
Atchison had no choice.
They are approaching South Hampton and, he's gonna have to kind of figure it out.
The air traffic controller assuredhim that you are number one.
Traffic.
This situation was completelyunprecedented as aviation expert
David Mont would later point out.
(42:37):
All airline pilot training is done withtwo pilots, both as competent mentors in
the cockpit, one flying the airplane andthe other one doing the emergency drills.
What you actually had was thecaptain hanging out of the window,
one person hanging onto his legs,and Alistair flying the airplane.
With nobody else to talk to.
(42:58):
I mean, this is just like unbelievable.
I don't think talking tosomebody is his big issue there.
All right.
We are now five miles from touchdown.
Atchison pleaded with the controller totalk him down all the way, saying that
he needed all the help he could get.
The controller stayed with him,providing constant guidance until
Atchison had visual of the runway.
Only then did the controller fall silent,allowing the copilot to concentrate
(43:22):
on landing only 32 minutes aftertakeoff with 81 terrified passengers, a
nearly full fuel tank, and the captainpartially ejected from the window.
Alistair Atchison attemptedthe most difficult landing of
his career at 8:55 AM Flight.
(43:43):
British Airlines 53 90, made a perfectlanding at South Hampton Airport.
He stuck the landingperfectly immediately.
Of course, emergency vehiclesare surrounding the plane.
Firefighters, remove the bodyof the captain and they lead
the passengers and crew away.
(44:04):
One passenger recalled seeing thecopilot, the man who, if it wasn't for
him, we would've been on the other side.
By now, he was walking down therunway, very slowly shaking his head.
There was an ambulance workerwith him, with his arm around
the shoulders of the copilot.
Oh my gosh, I cannot even imagine.
So our copilot had carried out aremarkable piece of flying, almost
(44:25):
unprecedented in aviation history.
He had piloted his plane withouta captain who had undergone
physical stresses that nobody couldhave been expected to survive.
The forces that Captain Lancaster'sbody endured were extreme.
He was subjected to a two-pronged assault.
The physical violence of being blownout of the plane, then the extreme
(44:50):
cold and lack of oxygen at 17,000 feet.
Medical experts believed that hewould've passed out very quickly,
first into semi-conscious, andthen full on consciousness.
His core body temperature wouldfall, obviously, and they figured
that he would've finally diedprobably from extreme cold.
It's a terrible way to die.
It's really not good.
(45:13):
So as this crisis is unfoldingaccident, investigators are immediately
rushing to the scene to try andfigure out what on earth happened.
I think that's the question we're allasking on the ground at South Hampton
Airport, the search for clues began.
Initial investigations showed nodistortion to the frame of the
(45:34):
windshield or the windscreen.
So the frame looks good.
Ruling out a problem with thestructure, the fact that there were
no shards of glass also eliminatedthe possibility of a bird strike
just clean.
Popped out they used bath bathroomcaulking instead of uh, real teamwork.
(45:59):
Alright, so let's meet one of our seniorinvestigators with the Air Accident
Investigation Branch Stuart Cooling.
So he had very little to go on initially,but one of his first clues came from the
log that was recovered from the plane.
He knew that the aircraft had beenserviced just the day before and
(46:21):
that a windscreen had been replaced.
He immediately paid a visit to the BritishAirways maintenance hanger at Birmingham
Cooling, was determined to speak withthe maintenance worker specifically
who had installed the windscreen.
However, there was a slight complication.
The worker had been on the night dutyand had finished his shift at roughly
(46:42):
the same time that the incident occurred.
He needed to get some sleepbefore he was interviewed.
In the meantime, cooling made surethat all paperwork and records related
to the aircraft were secured so thatthey could not be accessed or altered.
When the maintenance manager.
Finally arrived for the interview.
Cuing started with general questions aboutthe procedure for replacing a windshield.
(47:07):
I wonder if it's thesame as a car windshield.
I'm so curious.
During the interview, cuing receiveda phone call with crucial information.
The windscreen had been found alongwith about 30 bolts most alarming.
The majority of these bolts wereone size too small in diameter.
(47:31):
What
you can't be doing that, you can't beusing an M 10 when you need an M 12.
Thank you.
WA not.
Okay.
On some planes.
Windscreens are fitted from the insideand use the internal pressure inside
of the cabin to keep them in place.
But on this plane, the windscreenis bolted on from the outside.
(47:57):
So any weakness in the bolts meantthat the pressure inside of the plane,
which we've talked about, it's likethat balloon where you let go and
all of the air comes rushing out.
It's pushing and pushing and pushing.
And it just blew the windshield right out.
Poof.
Mm, I mean, it's just crazy.
Cooling.
(48:18):
Confronted the maintenance manager withthis discovery about the wrong bolts.
The manager was initially in disbelief,insisting that he'd used exactly
the same bolts, and he had beenvery careful with the installation.
He was a professional guy and he wasvery serious about doing things properly.
Obviously to be told that you didsomething like this, is really
bad, especially when you hearabout what happened to the captain.
(48:40):
I'd be pretty bummed.
Yeah.
Captain's got 37 brokenbones because of you.
Yes.
Is like not good.
By comparing the maintenance manualto what the engineer told him, culling
identified what had gone terribly wrong.
There were approximately 13 differentmistakes in the maintenance procedure
that had any one of them been caughtcould have prevented the accident.
(49:04):
Wow.
So here's what happened in detail folks.
The engineer had come early forhis shift, and around 4:00 AM had
begun removing the old windscreen.
The hangar was full and theplane had been pushed against the
hangar door making the windshield.
Difficult to reach.
This is why you need a big enough shop.
(49:26):
Can't just be pushing planesto the corner like that.
Stretched across the fuselage he hadproblems controlling his screwdriver.
Hmm.
I'm gonna ask you as a mechanic, Zach.
Mm-hmm.
Is that a shit excuse?
Is that like the most patheticthing you've ever He can't
control his screwdriver.
(49:49):
I have had to put myself in some positionswhere I, I can't even look at the car.
I have to have my arm twisted andripped around the opposite way, just
to be able to use these fingers.
Oh yeah.
Well, this guy was in acorner and he couldn't control
his screwdriver very well.
Anyway, the windscreen heremoved had itself been fitted.
(50:14):
With the wrong length bolts, butthey were still strong enough
to hold the windscreen in place.
It had survived withoutissue for four years.
Mm.
So that by itself is really nuts.
Okay.
They were able to reach the screws.
They, he was obviously able to reachthe screws because he was able to
(50:35):
see, , what screws they were, and thenhe replaced the old bolts with new
ones that are again, the wrong size.
So instead of checking the partscatalog, he went directly to the
parts store and he matched the bolts.
Bye eye.
Oh my goodness gracious.
(50:56):
It's giving me so much anxiety.
The store manager knew which boltsshould have been used and advised him,
but the engineer ignored this advicein this case, when this guy walked
into the Home Depot, you do not knowmore not everybody can be Ron Swanson.
It's so true.
He drove to the other side of theairport to search for matching bolts.
(51:20):
It was now about 5:15 AM andin a dark corner of the hangar.
He continued looking for new bolts,identical to the wrong ones that
he had removed from the plane.
But in the poor lighting.
His luck ran out.
He thought the new boltsmatched the old ones, which were
still wrong, but they didn't.
Oh, so he was wrong fromthe wrong he was wrong.
(51:40):
Twi, yes.
We're now double wrong.
We are wrong squared.
He selected bolts that were just overtwo hundredths of an inch too narrow.
A tiny difference withcatastrophic consequences.
To put this into perspective, , twohundredths of an inch is about
half a millimeter, roughly thethickness of five sheets of paper.
(52:03):
It's a difference so small thatyou probably wouldn't notice it
by eye unless you're my husband,especially in poor lighting.
But it was enough to completelycompromise the strength of
the windscreen installation.
Returning to the aircraft, he stretchedover the plane and began installing these
new bolts, working at an awkward angle.
(52:27):
He couldn't see that the newbolts didn't fit correctly.
He finished at 6:00 AM.
Having completed the work on schedule,the plane was now ready to be handed
over to the captain and his crew, butit was a disaster waiting to happen.
As we obviously know the next morning,as the flight climbed to 17,300 feet,
(52:48):
the difference in pressure between thesealed hole and the thin atmosphere
outside was increasing rapidly.
And Zach, as you called when we were likefour and a half minutes into the episode.
It was absolutely a pressure issue.
Science bitch, science bitch.
(53:09):
This pressure was looking for aweakness and it found one of those
incorrectly sized bolts for ourinvestigator, Stewart Cooling.
Finding out what happened thatnight was only the first step.
He needed to understand the deeper reasonsbehind the horrific sequence of events,
why the engineer did what he did, andwhether this was an isolated incident
(53:33):
or a symptom of a much bigger problem.
Like if this is happening inside ofthis factory, yeah, it could be really,
really catastrophic in what was at thetime, a very revolutionary approach.
I.
Coling brought in a behavioralpsychologist to analyze why
the maintenance engineermade the mistakes he did.
(53:54):
So that's like a really fascinatingthing to do, especially at this time.
This is 1990, right?
Human factors is the study of how peopleinteract with systems, equipment, and
procedures, recognizing that even the mostskilled professionals are still human.
At the end of the day.
(54:14):
Everybody has limitations.
Everybody is able to make mistakes.
It looks at how factors likefatigue, stress, workplace
culture, cognitive biases.
All of those can affectperformance and safety.
So this is the science of understandingwhy smart people sometimes do dumb shit.
The investigation revealed thatthe maintenance team in Birmingham
(54:37):
was under significant pressure,and this is very similar to what
we're hearing currently at Boeing.
Mm.
Okay.
So this is, this is like we'rewe're getting ties to kind of
current issues that we're havingin airplane maintenance and safety.
They had a lot of work.
It was all done at night, and often it wasmore than they could reasonably handle.
(54:58):
They had developedshortcuts as many humans do.
They just figured out, you know, work.
Smarter work.
Yeah, work smarter, not harder,except it didn't work out that way.
Clearly the engineer admittedthat he trusted his own judgment
more than official procedures.
This psychological approach, theinvestigation took air accident
(55:20):
prevention to a new level.
By understanding the pressures thatled to an otherwise proficient engineer
making a really significant mistake whilebeing fully certain that he was doing
the right thing, the investigators couldrecommend changes to prevent similar
accidents from happening in the future.
So in the aftermath, the crewobviously was treated as heroes.
(55:43):
Alistair Atchison was awarded the PolarisAward for his exceptional airmanship,
as well as the Queen's commendation forvaluable service in the air when the
crew returned to Birmingham airport.
They received an emotional welcome.
As they walked through the building.
The entire airport fell silent, andthen all the ground staff and check-in
(56:05):
personnel stood and applauded them.
It was really an incredibly moving moment.
Their colleagues were applauding ateam that had demonstrated the highest
level of professionalism that a cabincrew, can have by working together
through unbelievably extraordinarycircumstances, and a co-pilot who
took control and worked alone tobring everybody safely to the ground.
(56:30):
The crew members each dealt withtheir experiences differently.
For Nigel, our amazing flight attendant,who was the first one to grab the captain.
The impact was incredibly profound.
He later admitted that he thoughtabout the incident every single
day, and he believed that it wouldaffect him until the end of his days.
(56:51):
Nigel, along with Simon and Sue eventuallyleft their flying careers behind.
John remained with British Airways,, thechief steward, but transferred to long
haul flights, as those aircraft had noresemblance to the plane that he was in.
I think it's fair to be like, Idon't love this type of air plane.
That kind of freaks me out.
(57:12):
Alright, let's talk about our copilot.
Alistair.
He obviously saved the flight.
He continued his flying careerwith British Airways later joining,
channel Express, which became JetTwo, and he flew until his retirement
on his 65th birthday in 2015.
I know as for the captain,Tim Lancaster, he lived,
(57:37):
well, I'm not sure how, howmany broken bones did he have?
Okay, let's talk about whathappened because this is
obviously completely insane.
As his apparently lifeless body was takenfrom the plane, he was actually beginning
to emerge from his horrific adventure.
This is what Tim rememberedabout the ordeal.
There was this big bang anoise, all of the air escaping.
(58:01):
I remember watching the windscreenmove away from the aircraft and
then it had gone like a bullet.
It had disappeared into the distance.
He was aware of being outsideof the airplane, but remarkably
said, that didn't really botherme a great deal, a squeeze me.
It bothers me a great deal.
(58:21):
That would be a big bother.
I'm ex, I'm extremely bothered.
His most vivid memory wasstruggling to breathe because
he was facing into the airflow.
So he actually managed to turn his body.
So he was looking back alongthe top of the aircraft.
(58:42):
And he was then able to breathe.
The human body's response to extremeconditions is so fascinating and
sometimes incredibly surprising.
In frigid temperatures, the bodybegins to shut down non-essential
functions to preserve.
Core temperature and protect vital organs.
Essentially, hibernation blood flowis redirected from the extremities
(59:07):
to the brain, heart, and lungs.
This physiological responsecombined with the relatively short
duration of exposure, we know thatit was about 22 minutes total.
Likely helped Lancaster survivewhat absolutely should have
been a completely fatal event.
Yeah, that just sounds insane.
(59:27):
Okay.
How many bones do you think he broke?
Alright.
Um, if every indi does eachindividual bone in the back count?
No, you can just say like his back.
And I would guess that hehas some fractures in his
skull and cheekbones and I.
His back was broken.
(59:48):
Some ribs.
Okay.
I'm gonna say like, Idon't know, 10 or 12 bones.
Yeah, it's like that's,that's a, that's a lot.
You know, he went througha really traumatic thing.
Mm-hmm.
The physical trauma that hesuffered was extremely limited.
A bone fracture in his rightarm and wrist, a broken left
thumb, a bit of bruising, somefrostbite, and a bit of shock.
(01:00:13):
He had less shock than me.
Within five months he'd made afull recovery and was flying again.
Nope.
And he continued his careeruntil reaching British Airways.
Mandatory retirement age.
Then he continued flyingfor EasyJet until 2008.
(01:00:35):
Wow.
Thank God they held onto his legs.
They held onto his legs and helived, he lived like he had a Subaru.
Yes, he did.
They lived.
They, yes, and he lived.
I am so glad that we got to start offthis podcast with a survival story,
because I'm gonna be honest, um, manyof the stories that we will cover on
(01:00:57):
this show, he's not a hundred percentsurvival, will not have happy endings.
So it's fun for us to start off andbe like, wow, it's a miracle and
everyone lived and everything's great.
, because it, it's gonna,it's gonna get dark.
. That is our story for today.
That's a heck of a story.
I know.
I can't believe he lived and he lived,only had a couple broken things going on.
(01:01:22):
No major bones.
He lived and the whole thing happenedbecause of incorrectly sized.
Bolts, pay your mechanics more.
Okay.
Well, alright.
If you enjoyed this episode,please rate, review and subscribe
wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on social media andour handles will be in the show notes join
(01:01:46):
us next week when we will be discussinganother incredible aviation incident.
And actually I'll give you guys a littlespoiler 'cause I'm really excited.
Zach and I are taking a vacation,we are going to an, which is part
of the Caribbean Islands, and I amgoing to tell Zach a story about
(01:02:07):
the airport that we are flying into.
Mm-hmm.
In Eng.
Okay.
Okay.
Until then, remember to stow your traytables, fasten your seat belts, and
prepare for the unexpected, because notevery trip reaches its final destination.
Picture this.
an airliner full of passengers out ofcontrol at 17,000 feet, and the pilot is
outside of the airplane in the cockpit.
Terrified flight attendantsare clinging to his legs.
If he slips from their grasp, thecaptain's body could be sucked into the
(00:21):
engine and bring down the whole plane.
At the controls, a youngco-pilot is fighting to get the
aircraft to the nearest airport.
The lives of 87 passengers and creware hanging by a thread we're about to
experience what happens when the personflying your plane suddenly finds himself
(00:42):
on the wrong side of the windshield?
So stow your tray tables, fastenyour seat belts, and prepare for
some extreme turbulence becausethis is final boarding call.
Hello and welcome to Final Boarding Call.
I am your disaster obsessed host.
Alice and I am joined by myreluctant homebody husband, Zach.
(01:09):
Zach, say hi to the people.
Hello, everyone.
Before we dive in, a quick reminder toour listeners, please rate, review, and
subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, everybody buckle up.
Because today's story is trulyone of the most unbelievable
aviation incidents in history.
(01:29):
, it's honestly one of the most jawdropping flying stories of all time.
One that is still hard tobelieve even decades later.
This episode is based on extensiveresearch from multiple sources,
but my primary source is mayday AirCrash Investigation, which I love.
(01:50):
Specifically season two, episodeone, which is titled Blowout.
All resources will bereferenced in the show notes.
Alright, Zach, are you ready to dive in?
I'm ready.
I think the people, whoever may.
Listen to this.
If anybody ever, they would just findit incredibly ironic how often you
(02:12):
fly and you're obsessed with crashes.
I know.
I guess I didn't explain that.
Yeah.
I fly two to three times a month.
I'm usually on an airplane fourto six times every single month.
So that's, that's like a, apretty decent amount of flying.
Today I flew, actually, I came homefrom Dallas and I'm writing another
(02:33):
episode while I am on my airplane.
And the stewardess waswalking by just like.
what are you doing?
Are you insane?
So the answer is yes.
You are in fact insane.
Oh my gosh.
I know.
When I was in college and I was studyingmarketing, my, my original plan was to be,
like a crisis pr, director for an airline.
(02:54):
So I've always been reallyinto airline disasters.
I don't know why it's kinda sick.
Okay, let's jump into our story.
June 10th, 1990.
A beautiful Sunday morningin Birmingham, England
for the crew of British Airways.
(03:14):
Flight 53 90 heading to Malaga, Spain.
It began like any other day, old friendsabout to do a job that they love.
Flight attendants, Nigel Ogden and SimonRogers, along with stewardess Sue Gibbons
had worked together on and off for years.
They were an experienced, capableteam that took pride in its work.
(03:38):
As Nigel would later recall, atBirmingham, all the cabin crew and all
of the pilots, they all knew each other.
We were all on first name terms.
Simon was a good friend ofmine anyway because we'd just
go out for a beer or a curry.
Everybody was friendly to everybodyelse, and I love the English.
(04:00):
That's the best.
I feel like in America it'd be like,ah, she was going for my promotion.
The one new member of the group wasAlistair Atchison, an experienced
co-pilot who'd just driven downfrom Manchester That morning.
He was about to meet CaptainTim Lancaster, a veteran with
21 years of experience as acommercial pilot, and over 11.
(04:26):
Thousand flight hours under his belt.
That's a lot of flying.
It's like a lot of flying.
The plane, they'd be flyingwas BAC one 11, sometimes
called the Jeep of the skies.
I don't know how you feel about that.
Everybody knows my distaste for Jeeps, soI don't know if they do, but now they do.
(04:47):
Okay.
Well, I think they meant it ina positive way because it was a
workhorse known for being easy tomaintain with a good safety record.
So you gotta remember,this is the early nineties.
This is back when Jeepswere like indestructible.
You could throw your Jeep off theside of a mountain, drive it home.
Good old four liters, I mean, truly.
(05:08):
So for those unfamiliar with thisaircraft, it's a twin engine narrow
body jet liner that was smaller thantoday's Boeing seven 30 sevens imagine
like a regional jet that typicallycarried around 80 to a hundred passengers
on shorter routes within Europe.
Zach and I live, in Colorado Springs.
(05:30):
And we often fly from ColoradoSprings to Denver to like
make a connection somewhere.
So this is similar to thosetypes of airplanes that we
take a little bit smaller.
The aircraft had 81 passengers onboard, along with six crew members.
Before takeoff.
Captain Lancaster looked througha maintenance log, noting that the
(05:54):
plane had just come out of maintenancethe day before the work seemed
routine, just a windshield change.
Nothing to worry about.
Or was it, that's foreshadowing.
Now when we say windshield, we're talkingabout the cockpit windows, those huge
curved panels of glass that are infront of the plane that give the pilots,
(06:18):
they're viewed to the outside world.
So unlike the small passenger windowsthat we all look out of when we're
flying, these windscreens, they arehuge, super heavily reinforced, and
they are designed to withstand extremeconditions because obviously they are
getting all of that front on wind ofa plane traveling incredibly quickly.
(06:41):
They are designed to take wind, birdstrikes, temperature variations.
At least they are supposed to be.
Meanwhile, while our captains aregetting settled and they're going
through the maintenance logs,passengers were boarding this flight.
Many of them were looking forwardto a relaxing trip to Spain.
(07:05):
And I cannot blame them becauseI, ugh, what I would give
for a relaxing trip in Spain.
Nothing but you wouldgive for a relaxing trip.
You know, counting Crows, they have asong called Holiday in Spain and I could
really use a holiday in Spain, so I'mjust gonna gonna have that song playing
in the background of this episode.
One of the passengers was a womantraveling to meet her mother and sister
(07:30):
for a girl's week holiday, another wasreturning to Spain to see grandchildren.
These are completely ordinarypeople that are expecting to be
on a completely ordinary flight.
Do you ever think about thatwhen you're boarding a plane?
Like what people are expecting Yes.
And where they're going?
(07:50):
Yes.
Like what their story is.
You know, we're all getting on this plane.
We are all assuming this is justgoing to be a routine normal flight.
Are we all going to have to like saveeach other at some point on this?
I don't know.
Maybe I do because I writean aviation disaster podcast.
Okay.
And I don't even have to think aboutwhat people are doing because I just
talk to 'em and end up in their weddings.
(08:13):
No.
I don't wanna talk toanybody on a, on a plane.
I immediately put my headphones inand have, do not talk to me face on.
And Zach will make friends with everybodyon that plane by the time we get off.
It's so charming and so annoying.
All right, well on this flight.
The passengers are getting settled in.
(08:34):
They went through theusual pre-flight routine.
The flight attendants are demonstratingthe safety procedures while predictably,
no passengers pay attention.
One passenger leader recalledseeing another traveler casually
reading the times during the safetydemonstration, because this is pre
iPad, most people were not payingattention because typically they'd
(09:00):
all flown before and they consideredeverything to be routine, right?
Always pay attention to the safetydemonstrations folks always at
approximately 7:20 AM local time.
So this here's.
You know, an early-ish flight.
I take my, my usual flight I take is at6:00 AM So seven 20 sounds like a dream.
(09:24):
British Airways flight 53 90 began itstakeoff roll co-pilot Atchison handled the
takeoff and as the plane climbed throughthe morning sky, captain Lancaster made a
brief announcement, ladies and gentlemen.
Well, he has an accent.
Ladies and gentlemen, thisis, that was like really bad.
(09:47):
Cockney.
I'm sorry.
Ladies and gentlemen, this isyour captain speaking my name.
Tim Lancaster, welcome aboard thisBritish Airways flight to Spain.
The plane was climbing steadily towardits cruising altitude of 23,000 feet.
They expected to be in Spain In just overtwo hours, the aircraft reached 17,300
(10:11):
feet and the pilots engaged the autopilot.
Captain Lancaster removed hisshoulder straps and he loosened his
seatbelt as they settled in for whatshould have been a routine flight.
Should have been.
Should have been.
It's not gonna be for those who aren'tfamiliar with the cockpit of an airplane.
(10:32):
Let me explain The restraintsystems that pilots use.
There are typically two components.
There is the lap belt, which works justlike the seat belts that passengers
use, and there are shoulder harnesses.
And those resemble the upperportion of a car's seat belt.
(10:52):
So the shoulder straps are crucialduring takeoff and landing, but
typically pilots loosen them duringthe cruise for comfort and so that
they can reach controls more easily.
So we are 13 minutes now aftertakeoff and flight attendant, Nigel
Ogden entered the cockpit to ask thepilots what they'd like to drink.
(11:14):
The pilots requested tea because theyare classy, and Nigel mentioned their
breakfast would be ready in a few minutes.
I love this.
They're literally gettinglike a hot breakfast and tea.
What a dream.
It's now 7:33 AM the aircraft wasclimbing through 17,300 feet, just
5,000 feet from their assigned altitude.
(11:37):
But then in a split second, everythingchanged with a huge explosion.
The captain's windshield blewout completely into the sky.
Kaboom like big kaboom.
Almost immediately a white fogformed throughout the cabin.
That's what happens when there'sa sudden drop in pressure and
(11:58):
moisture in the air condenses.
It's kind of like what happens whenyou open your freezer door on a humid
day, and then you just see that likecloud of mist come out of it when I
suppose when you're at 17,000 feet,you're up in the clouds anyway that
are gonna be freaking freezing.
Freaking freezing.
Freaking freezing.
Yes.
Very cold.
I'm gonna take just a second to kindof explain cabin pressurization,
(12:21):
because we've all heard, like, oh,when the cabin pressure changes,
the little oxygen mask will drop.
But what actually does that mean?
So, commercial aircraft flight ataltitudes where the air is too thin for
humans to breathe, often above 30,000 feetZach and I have been above 14,000 feet
because we live in Colorado and we havebeen to like the top of Pike's Peak, and
(12:45):
I've hiked a couple fourteeners and it isextremely hard to breathe at 14,000 feet.
So yeah, 30,000 feet.
Forget about it.
At these heights, the outsideair pressure is about a third of
what we experience at sea level.
To keep everybody conscious is critical.
(13:07):
The aircraft maintains a higherpressure inside the cabin, then outside,
typically equivalent to the pressure.
At like 6,000 to 8,000feet above sea level.
So like nice sounds easy for us.
We live there.
I mean, yes, like we're groovy.
We just can cruise there.
(13:29):
This pressure difference meansthat air is constantly trying to
escape from inside the plane tolower pressure environment outside.
It's like air rushing out of a balloonas soon as you let go of the opening.
So when a sudden breach occurs inthe aircraft, you opened the balloon.
(13:51):
That rush of air canbe incredibly violent.
what aviation experts callexplosive decompression.
One passenger described feeling anintense stomach and body shaking, thud,
followed by the plane starting to jutter.
Many initially thoughta bomb had exploded.
(14:15):
Is that what pushed thewindshield out in the first place?
Is the change in pressure?
They just replaced the windshieldand then the inside pressure
was trying to push outside.
I love this.
So you guys, um, Zach's a mechanic,but he is not just a mechanic.
He's like.
Brilliant engineer mind, kind of mechanic.
So you are already gettinginto the meat of this, my love.
(14:40):
We are going to go through a wholeinvestigation about exactly what
happened, but you just keep marinatingon on that thought right now.
We need to figure out what's gonnahappen with this plane because
it's still in the air and like
crazy things are happening.
What happened in the nextfew seconds was pure chaos.
(15:00):
The explosive decompression createda pressure difference that acted
like a giant vacuum cleaner.
So at Cruising altitude, the pressureinside an aircraft is maintained at
around eight pounds per square inch.
While outside it's about 3.5
pounds.
This difference is what keepseveryone comfortable, but it also
(15:24):
means that air is constantly tryingto escape from inside the plane.
Captain Tim Lancaster, who hadloosened his seatbelt, do we remember
that when he loosened his seatbelt?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Well, he was violently suckedtoward the opening where the
windshield had been like a vacuum.
(15:46):
The 310 mile per hour windpunched him through the hole.
His upper body was forced outof the aircraft while his legs
caught on the flight controls.
That's insane.
His upper body out, his legsconnected just by chance.
To, to the flight controls.
(16:09):
And that is the only thing keepinghim from being completely ejected.
Right.
So he's kind of being foldedlike a lawn chair but backwards.
Yes, he kind of is.
And then what's worse is that becausehis legs are connected to the controls
and he's being forced kind of upand out, he now has the plane stuck
(16:30):
into an a dive because he is jammedthe controls in a forward position.
You know, I picture that.
In a straight nose dive of a plane.
The last place I wanna be is on the nose.
Yeah, no, it's like super, super bad.
And in the process of all of this,just to make it better, he also
(16:51):
accidentally disconnected the autopilot.
So guy, learn how to use your feet.
Oh my God.
Poor Tim.
Poor caption Tim.
All right.
So I'm gonna super quick explain whatthe control column is because it's, it's
important with his legs tangled in it.
So obviously it's the steering wheel of anaircraft, but it does not look like that.
(17:16):
It looks more like a joystick or a yoke.
And when it's pushed forward,it points the nose of the plane.
Down.
Down.
And when it is pulled backwardstowards your body, towards a
person, then the plane goes up.
Up, correct with the captain'slegs jammed against it.
(17:38):
The plane was now headed downward.
In a completely uncontrolled dissent.
So all of a sudden our co-pilot, AlistairAtchison, finds himself fighting for
control in hurricane force winds.
There is no time to think about thecaptain who is now half outside the
(18:00):
aircraft, his body just exposed tothe elements at more than 17,000 feet.
That's nuts.
The throttles are jammed forward,increasing the speed to nearly 400
miles per hour in a dive is thatwhy there was that speed increase?
Is just because they're also in that.
(18:23):
Descent there, you're just picking upspeed rapidly as you're falling basically.
Yes.
They free.
Yes.
They're free falling at that point.
Yes, yes.
Yeah.
With thrust.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, they were going fast beforebut now they're going just like
stupid fast, so throttles obviouslyare the controls that determine
how much power the engines produce.
(18:44):
Similar to an acceleratorpedal in your car.
With these pushed to themaximum setting, the plane is
essentially gas pedal to the floor.
So not only are we in a divedown, but now we are flooring it.
Going as quick as we can down.
(19:04):
Well, we're going down.
Down.
Oh boy.
Meanwhile, our poor flight attendant,Nigel, witnessed the unthinkable.
So he peeks into the flighttech and he sees this insanity.
He said, all I could seewas Tim out the window.
(19:27):
I'm like, that is so scary.
It's so bad.
Without hesitation,Nigel jumped into action.
This man is , who I want in a crisis.
I have so much respect for Nigel.
He put one foot on the captain's foot.
Well.
And the other one downthe side of his seat.
(19:51):
And Nigel just held onto him beforehe got sucked out completely.
So Nigel's now holding ontothe captain for dear life.
Outside a 390 to 400 mile per hourblast of wind at, negative 2.6
degrees Fahrenheit, that is minus17 degrees Celsius was smashing into
(20:14):
Captain Tim Lancaster's body justannihilating this poor man, the bone
chilling, cold and violent forceis dang near impossible to endure.
Like that's, that's crazy.
To put this into perspective, thiskind of temperature is about the
(20:34):
temperature inside your freezer.
I'm still hung up on the mile anhour because just from days in riding
motorcycles, they said that if youwere going about 200 miles an hour.
If you stuck your head up abovethe windscreen, made yourself a
little less aerodynamic, you wouldbe just ripped off the motorcycle.
(20:57):
It's like equivalent to like an Fthree hurricane or something like that?
Yes.
I mean, you're, you're spot on.
Like we have to think theseconditions are completely nuts.
And they have no visibility of him.
He is like outside of theplane and they are just holding
onto this poor man's legs.
For all they know, all there is is legs.
(21:19):
That's okay.
Yes.
That's what I would be thinking.
I would be like, uh.
There's gonna not be the restof a human being attached
to this part that I can see.
Captain, are you okay?
Oh, the captain is not.
Okay.
Obviously as we just heard,he's having a very bad time.
(21:39):
The tornado raging through the cockpitwas giving Atchison major problems.
So this is our co-pilot now.
He's obviously having some seriousissues controlling the aircraft.
Here's the irony.
This poor man is trying to tellair traffic control what is
(22:00):
happening, but because he's in ahurricane, they can't hear him.
They can't hear him.
He is alone on this island.
The plane is diving through some ofthe busiest airplanes in the world.
This is like the highway, theinterstate of the air, and he is just
(22:27):
in a nose, dive through this thing.
The situation could not havebeen more desperate, period.
He's, he's being that terribledriver that's cutting from the
far left lane all the way to,oh, I need to exit 10 feet ago.
Come on Atchison, get it together.
My guy.
We're not gonna shamethe hero of this story.
(22:47):
Okay.
In the cabin, Nigel sounds like the hero.
He's, oh my god, we love Nigel too.
In the cabin, passengers wereexperiencing an absolute nightmare.
One remembered we were just diving really?
And then it started to jutter.
I feel like this is like acool English word that we don't
(23:08):
use, that they like using.
Yeah.
The is not, because this, this is nowthe second quote that has the term Judah.
I just feel so tery.
And here is everybody's worst fear.
One of their worst fears on a plane.
The oxygen masks come down.
Those never come down.
And it's like confetti andit's like surprise prize.
(23:31):
It.
We're celebrating Jan's birthday.
No, the oxygen mask come down and you'relike, we're gonna die on this airplane.
As the plane continues, its rapid descent.
Captain Lancaster remained pinnedto the outside of the aircraft by
the force of the wind enduringconditions that are just unbelievable.
(23:54):
Like, unimaginable, unfathomable.
I hate wind.
I step outside and it's a little bitwindy and I don't wanna walk my dog.
This dude, like, I cannot, I cannotwrap my brain around what this,
what's happening to this guy.
From the cabin lead steward,John Hayward saw the chaos in the
(24:20):
cockpit, and we have another hero.
This story's full of heroes.
So the flight deck door had fallenforward and was now trapped between
the doorframe and the throttles.
Geez.
So just like more, more chaosis happening on this plane.
(24:41):
John had to stamp on it twice before itbroke into pieces, allowing him to enter.
It's just like nothing.
Nothing can go.
Right.
And then suddenly a doorsplinter shoots out the window.
Yeah.
Right now And lodged itself in No, no, no.
That's the end of the door.
Looking for any way to help Johnnoticed the observer's seat on
(25:03):
the wall of the flight deck.
This is.
So smart.
He put his arms through theseatbelt to create an anchor.
An anchor.
He created an anchor point giving themall something more stable to hold onto.
So think about this.
Nigel and John are now creatingbasically a human chain, trying
(25:27):
to hold onto the pilot's legs.
And John has latched himself tothis seatbelt to create an anchor.
It's, it's brilliant.
The observer seat for those thatare unfamiliar with cockpit layouts
is an extra seat in the cockpit.
It's meant for instructors,check pilots, other crew members.
I think it's also referred to asa jump seat, but don't quote me on
(25:50):
that, because I do not work in theairline industry, but I do believe
that sometimes it's called a jump seat.
I learned that from the excellent movie.
Catch Me if you can.
Okay.
Which is, you know, I don't think I shouldbe getting factual airline information
from woof, copilot Atchison who hadnever flown with this crew before.
(26:14):
Do you remember that?
This was, they all were homies.
They all knew each otherexcept for this outsider.
And then this poor copilot is brandnew to the gang, and now all of
a sudden he's in this situation.
It's just wild.
Maybe that's why this happened.
That was just like their test.
Can you hang.
(26:35):
Yeah.
Well this is their initiationare you cool enough to go get
frozen yogurt with us later?
I don't know.
Okay.
You can't sit with us.
You can't sit with us.
Copilot Atchison is not going to,technically sit with them right
now because he has to leave themto their own devices and focus
on getting the plane to safety.
(26:55):
So he really cannot be dealing withthe captain out the window situation.
So he gets full control of thethrottles because John and Nigel
are able to wrench the captain'sfeet away from the control column.
So between the two of 'em and the anchorpoint, they're able to figure that out.
(27:16):
So that's wonderful.
That's step one.
Step one.
No longer have to go 400 miles an hour.
That's, thank you.
Down, straight down.
So that's good.
But instead of slowing down,Atchison decided to continue
the rapid descent gasp.
How dare he What is up his sleeve?
(27:37):
Don't worry, you guys.
This was a calculated decision.
It would quickly take him outof the way of other air traffic.
Remember he's in the middle of thecrazy intersection and bring the
aircraft to a lower altitude whereoxygen equipment wouldn't be needed.
So huge props to Atchison because thereare two major issues happening right now.
(28:01):
One, a mid-air collision, whichwould be absolutely catastrophic.
And two, the people on theplane cannot breathe right now.
Mm.
Those are two significant problems.
So I also cannot breathe.
Sorry for anybody that hears me sniffle,and I wish we could be like, oh,
it's just like he's not feeling good.
(28:23):
It'll be better.
It won't.
This is just how Zach breathes.
It's just the sound of him.
Alright.
So Atchison being so smart, hetakes us down to a lower elevation.
He's got oxygen on the brain.
staying too long at high elevation riskedoxygen starvation, , especially since
this aircraft is a little older, andit wasn't fully equipped with oxygen
(28:46):
for all passengers At high altitudes,there is not enough oxygen in the
air for humans to remain conscious.
The higher you go the less time you have.
At 18,000 feet, you might have 20 to30 minutes without supplemental oxygen.
At 25,000 feet, that drops to threeto five minutes above 30,000 feet.
(29:07):
Forget it, you got likeless than a minute.
While passenger oxygen masks providetemporary protection, they are typically
designed to last only long enough.
For the plane to descendto breathable altitude.
That is a little known airline fact folks.
(29:28):
Mm-hmm.
That oxygen mask is not gonnakeep people alive forever.
Okay.
You put the mask on and it hasenough oxygen in it to keep you going
for about 15 minutes, typically.
So it is critical that pilots getdown to a lower altitude very quickly.
(29:49):
The air spade indicator wentinto the red as they plummeted,
just sirens going crazy.
The airplane is like, what are you doing?
Why are you doing this?
I am not meant to do this.
In the cabin poor flight attendants, SueGibbons and Simon Rogers, who were trying
(30:12):
to prepare the passengers for what theyfully believed would be an emergency
landing, if they were lucky enough tomake it to like a quote unquote landing.
So they're dealing withthe chaos in the cabin.
The plane dived to 11,000feet in just two and a half.
Minutes.
Well, that doesn't sound as dramaticin my head as I was picturing it.
(30:35):
I mean, obviously it is, but you saidthey were at 17,300 or something?
Yes.
And they got down to, 11in two and a half minutes.
Okay.
Yeah, but I mean, that's, so that's thesteep descent, but that's not like, no.
Straight down kinda stuff.
I, I wouldn't like to do that.
I'll put it that way.
I don't wanna be on aplane that's doing that.
(30:56):
That would freak me out.
Okay.
I would enjoy doingthat if it was planned.
If it was supposed to be that way.
Yeah.
Sure.
Sure.
Yeah.
I don't really like falling, so I'm justgonna opt outta that whole activity.
As they leveled out and slowedto 170 miles per hour, which is,
(31:16):
that's a big slow down there.
That, thank you.
I was waiting for somesort of reaction from you.
Yes.
We called that a heartbreak.
The captain's body was no longer pinned tothe roof by the force of the wind, and it
slid around to now the side of the plane.
Working his way from the back of thecabin, Stuart Simon Rogers now caught
(31:38):
sight of the cockpit for the firsttime, and what he saw was beyond
anything he could have imagined.
Nigel who had been holding ontothe captain with all his strength,
was beginning to lose his grip.
His arms were aching terribly, buthe was determined not to let go
until he was sure that the captainwouldn't fly out of the window.
(31:59):
The stress on the flightattendants was enormous.
They were all terrified.
They were wondering if Tim would die if hewas already dead, if they would all die.
And they knew it was up to Atchisonto fly the plane and up to the three
of them to hold on to this man.
What the crew witnessednext was really horrifying.
(32:22):
The captain's arms were flailingwildly outside of the aircraft.
Yeah, I could picture that.
I love driving down the interstatewith my window down and you know,
putting an open palm out there.
Yeah.
And then just feeling that windresistance even at, you know, 85 or 90
miles an hour, that'll just rip yourarm back if you're actually limp limb.
(32:47):
That's brutal.
The captain's eyes were wide open, butun blinking even as his face smashed
repeatedly against the side screen.
The terrible realization hit them.
They believed he was dead.
Nigel was reaching his physicallimits and told the others that
he couldn't hold on any longer.
(33:07):
He had lost all feeling in his arms.
I mean, I, it's so cold,like the wind is hitting you.
He's holding on to this poor guy.
, I can't believe he heldon as long as he did.
But in any case, what thismeans, like any good organized
team, they had to reorganize.
So Simon sat in the jump seatand he fastened himself in, which
(33:30):
makes him like a human anchor.
He's not just like arm.
Through.
He is strapped in, they hooked thecaptain's feet over the back of the
captain's seat and Simon put hishands on top holding his ankles down.
So like, that's a sight,it's like a wheelbarrow game.
(33:51):
You know, it's, I should not belaughing 'cause this is so fucked.
Um, but it's kind of like that.
Ugh.
I laugh because it's terrible.
Meanwhile, in the passenger cabin,people were terrified and confused.
When one passenger asked a flightattendant what was happening,
they received the shocking replythat the captain might be dead.
(34:15):
Now I've got, it's a heck ofa way to deliver that news.
I gotta say.
I'm not sure, but thecaptain might be dead.
Oh my gosh.
Is, is that the best way to deliver that?
I don't know.
It's not the way I woulddo it, I'm gonna be honest.
Okay.
And obviously the passengerwas stunned by this news.
(34:37):
Just minutes earlier they had heard thatcaptain welcoming them aboard, describing
a lovely day the blue skies encouragingthem to relax and enjoy the flight.
You gotta think they are notthat long into this flight.
It's like, yeah.
What's the total time roughlyat this point, if we know?
So the flight took off at seven 20.
(35:01):
At 7 33 is when the windshield blew out.
13 minutes after takeoff.
And all of this happened.
Very, very quickly.
Yeah, but just then you add that to drop.
I mean, they're like 18 minutes in max.
Yeah, we're between 15 and 18 minutes.
So yeah, the passengersare pretty stunned.
Simon and Copilot.
(35:22):
Atchison now faced one oftheir most difficult decisions.
What do they do with thelifeless body of their caption?
No words were spoken, but for amoment the thought passed between
them that perhaps the best thingto do would just be to let him go.
But Atchison made his decision.
No.
Hold onto him.
(35:43):
Don't worry, don't, don't go.
Oh, because this was notan act of compassion.
There's a very practicalreason that he said this.
Now remember he has transitionedfrom being on top to the side.
What would Gravity do?
Take it to the engine.
Boom, baby.
Our poor captain would've likelybeen sucked into the engine.
(36:06):
So he could have either damagedthe wing with like crazy force.
I mean, you gotta think the, thewing is used to like small birds, a
fricking human flying, really fast.
Bird strikes are still crazy dangerous.
So it's true, like a big bird willfuck up an airplane, as we know
by an episode that we'll probablycover at some point in the future.
(36:29):
Him getting sucked into the engine wouldbe catastrophic, absolutely catastrophic.
So we wanted to avoid.
That from happening, and thatis why they continue to hold on.
Can't let the captainruin their day twice.
Oh my,
woo.
Oh no.
Copilot Atchison had managedto get the plane down to 11,000
(36:53):
feet without the captain to help.
He was operating the aircraftsystems from memory and navigating
around Heathrow some of the mostcongested airspace in the world.
So you gotta think about this.
Typically in a cockpit, you havethe pilot, you have a copilot, and
one of them is doing steering andcontrols and whatnot, and the other
(37:16):
one has like a manual or is looking.
Things up and checking other things.
It's like seeing radar,all kinds of stuff.
A hundred percent.
Zach and I, , are hobby,race, car drivers.
And you know, this makes me think ofrally, like a really good rally team.
You got a driver and you got somebodywho's like doing the navigating.
Oh.
(37:37):
And poor Atchison has a nobody.
He's flying literally solo afterseven minutes out of contact with
the ground, he was finally able tohear air traffic control speed.
Bird 5 3 90.
Can you accept landing in SouthHampton as Atchison replied?
I'm familiar with Gatwick.
(37:57):
Would appreciate Gatwick.
Atchison wanted to land at Gatwick Airportas he'd flown there many times before.
But South Hampton was closer andeven though he'd never flown there,
he knew he had to get down fast.
The trouble was all of the mapsand charts had blown out of
(38:19):
the window with the captain.
Only the air trafficcontroller could guide him.
Now he turned the plane,that was our pit bull.
They are like theloudest sis in the world.
Okay.
So he only had the help of theair traffic controller to guide
(38:41):
him, but he does end up turningthe plane towards South Hampton.
, for those that are unfamiliarwith aviation pilots rely
heavily on aeronautical charts.
I'm glad I nailed that one.
Specialized maps that showrunways, navigation aids, terrain
features, airspace, boundaries.
They are basically a pilot's equivalentto roadmaps, but they're way more
(39:04):
detailed, way more complex, take, youknow, training to read and understand.
But without these crucial referencesat Jacin was essentially driving
in an unfamiliar city without anyGPS or a map just going for it.
Shooting his shot.
At least he didn't have any stoplights.
I.
(39:25):
Oh my God, at least always lookingon the bright side, you air traffic
controller Andy Rundel took over.
Speed bird 5 3 90 identified onhandover from London Radar six miles
east of South Hampton Airfield.
That's what Andy said, butit was in a British accent.
(39:46):
When Atchison spoke, thestress in his voice was.
Freaking obvious because this dudehad had a time, Rundel recalled
that he was obviously under a fairbit of pressure, like I should say.
So yeah, bud.
The controller asked for more information.
What is your number of persons on board?
We have 84 passengers on board.
(40:08):
I've been advised it's apressurization failure.
Is that the only problemthe controller inquired?
They might have one or two other problems.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And Atache's response leftthe controller stunned.
The captain is half out the airplane.
I believe he's
(40:28):
later described his reactionas one of complete disbelief.
This was something that you see in films.
But you really neversee this in real life.
Sison requested emergencyfacilities for the captain.
He's reaffirming that and he, he's sayingthat they're gonna need an ambulance
waiting for them when they land.
(40:49):
Atchison asked, could you confirmthat the length of runway at South
Hampton is acceptable for BAC one 11?
Yes, it is acceptable.
Replied the controller promising toprovide the figure shortly, as long
as we have at least 2,500 meters.
I am happy said Atchison.
I cannot believe that he is like so calm.
(41:11):
, but the controller bad news.
I'm afraid we have a maximum of 1800.
Nice.
So it di brakes hard.
This is bad.
This is a real serious concern.
The plane was above its maximum landingweight being full of fuel because it
(41:31):
was only in the air for 20 minutes.
So it's already way, way heavy.
And then, it can't dumpfuel like larger aircraft.
So if the runway wasn't long enough,Atchison phased the possibility that
the aircraft will not be able to stop.
The tires might burst, or they couldjust go right off the end of the
(41:53):
runway to make a really bad day.
Even worse.
Larger aircraft often have theability to dump fuel which feels
very bad for the environment to me,but I like, who am I a question?
That's the next generation'sissue as long as we live.
Um, yeah.
I don't love it anyway.
I understand stand why it's necessaryfor like emergency landings,
(42:15):
but it's still totally crazy.
Atchison had no choice.
They are approaching South Hampton and, he's gonna have to kind of figure it out.
The air traffic controller assuredhim that you are number one.
Traffic.
This situation was completelyunprecedented as aviation expert
David Mont would later point out.
(42:37):
All airline pilot training is done withtwo pilots, both as competent mentors in
the cockpit, one flying the airplane andthe other one doing the emergency drills.
What you actually had was thecaptain hanging out of the window,
one person hanging onto his legs,and Alistair flying the airplane.
With nobody else to talk to.
(42:58):
I mean, this is just like unbelievable.
I don't think talking tosomebody is his big issue there.
All right.
We are now five miles from touchdown.
Atchison pleaded with the controller totalk him down all the way, saying that
he needed all the help he could get.
The controller stayed with him,providing constant guidance until
Atchison had visual of the runway.
Only then did the controller fall silent,allowing the copilot to concentrate
(43:22):
on landing only 32 minutes aftertakeoff with 81 terrified passengers, a
nearly full fuel tank, and the captainpartially ejected from the window.
Alistair Atchison attemptedthe most difficult landing of
his career at 8:55 AM Flight.
(43:43):
British Airlines 53 90, made a perfectlanding at South Hampton Airport.
He stuck the landingperfectly immediately.
Of course, emergency vehiclesare surrounding the plane.
Firefighters, remove the bodyof the captain and they lead
the passengers and crew away.
(44:04):
One passenger recalled seeing thecopilot, the man who, if it wasn't for
him, we would've been on the other side.
By now, he was walking down therunway, very slowly shaking his head.
There was an ambulance workerwith him, with his arm around
the shoulders of the copilot.
Oh my gosh, I cannot even imagine.
So our copilot had carried out aremarkable piece of flying, almost
(44:25):
unprecedented in aviation history.
He had piloted his plane withouta captain who had undergone
physical stresses that nobody couldhave been expected to survive.
The forces that Captain Lancaster'sbody endured were extreme.
He was subjected to a two-pronged assault.
The physical violence of being blownout of the plane, then the extreme
(44:50):
cold and lack of oxygen at 17,000 feet.
Medical experts believed that hewould've passed out very quickly,
first into semi-conscious, andthen full on consciousness.
His core body temperature wouldfall, obviously, and they figured
that he would've finally diedprobably from extreme cold.
It's a terrible way to die.
It's really not good.
(45:13):
So as this crisis is unfoldingaccident, investigators are immediately
rushing to the scene to try andfigure out what on earth happened.
I think that's the question we're allasking on the ground at South Hampton
Airport, the search for clues began.
Initial investigations showed nodistortion to the frame of the
(45:34):
windshield or the windscreen.
So the frame looks good.
Ruling out a problem with thestructure, the fact that there were
no shards of glass also eliminatedthe possibility of a bird strike
just clean.
Popped out they used bath bathroomcaulking instead of uh, real teamwork.
(45:59):
Alright, so let's meet one of our seniorinvestigators with the Air Accident
Investigation Branch Stuart Cooling.
So he had very little to go on initially,but one of his first clues came from the
log that was recovered from the plane.
He knew that the aircraft had beenserviced just the day before and
(46:21):
that a windscreen had been replaced.
He immediately paid a visit to the BritishAirways maintenance hanger at Birmingham
Cooling, was determined to speak withthe maintenance worker specifically
who had installed the windscreen.
However, there was a slight complication.
The worker had been on the night dutyand had finished his shift at roughly
(46:42):
the same time that the incident occurred.
He needed to get some sleepbefore he was interviewed.
In the meantime, cooling made surethat all paperwork and records related
to the aircraft were secured so thatthey could not be accessed or altered.
When the maintenance manager.
Finally arrived for the interview.
Cuing started with general questions aboutthe procedure for replacing a windshield.
(47:07):
I wonder if it's thesame as a car windshield.
I'm so curious.
During the interview, cuing receiveda phone call with crucial information.
The windscreen had been found alongwith about 30 bolts most alarming.
The majority of these bolts wereone size too small in diameter.
(47:31):
What
you can't be doing that, you can't beusing an M 10 when you need an M 12.
Thank you.
WA not.
Okay.
On some planes.
Windscreens are fitted from the insideand use the internal pressure inside
of the cabin to keep them in place.
But on this plane, the windscreenis bolted on from the outside.
(47:57):
So any weakness in the bolts meantthat the pressure inside of the plane,
which we've talked about, it's likethat balloon where you let go and
all of the air comes rushing out.
It's pushing and pushing and pushing.
And it just blew the windshield right out.
Poof.
Mm, I mean, it's just crazy.
Cooling.
(48:18):
Confronted the maintenance manager withthis discovery about the wrong bolts.
The manager was initially in disbelief,insisting that he'd used exactly
the same bolts, and he had beenvery careful with the installation.
He was a professional guy and he wasvery serious about doing things properly.
Obviously to be told that you didsomething like this, is really
bad, especially when you hearabout what happened to the captain.
(48:40):
I'd be pretty bummed.
Yeah.
Captain's got 37 brokenbones because of you.
Yes.
Is like not good.
By comparing the maintenance manualto what the engineer told him, culling
identified what had gone terribly wrong.
There were approximately 13 differentmistakes in the maintenance procedure
that had any one of them been caughtcould have prevented the accident.
(49:04):
Wow.
So here's what happened in detail folks.
The engineer had come early forhis shift, and around 4:00 AM had
begun removing the old windscreen.
The hangar was full and theplane had been pushed against the
hangar door making the windshield.
Difficult to reach.
This is why you need a big enough shop.
(49:26):
Can't just be pushing planesto the corner like that.
Stretched across the fuselage he hadproblems controlling his screwdriver.
Hmm.
I'm gonna ask you as a mechanic, Zach.
Mm-hmm.
Is that a shit excuse?
Is that like the most patheticthing you've ever He can't
control his screwdriver.
(49:49):
I have had to put myself in some positionswhere I, I can't even look at the car.
I have to have my arm twisted andripped around the opposite way, just
to be able to use these fingers.
Oh yeah.
Well, this guy was in acorner and he couldn't control
his screwdriver very well.
Anyway, the windscreen heremoved had itself been fitted.
(50:14):
With the wrong length bolts, butthey were still strong enough
to hold the windscreen in place.
It had survived withoutissue for four years.
Mm.
So that by itself is really nuts.
Okay.
They were able to reach the screws.
They, he was obviously able to reachthe screws because he was able to
(50:35):
see, , what screws they were, and thenhe replaced the old bolts with new
ones that are again, the wrong size.
So instead of checking the partscatalog, he went directly to the
parts store and he matched the bolts.
Bye eye.
Oh my goodness gracious.
(50:56):
It's giving me so much anxiety.
The store manager knew which boltsshould have been used and advised him,
but the engineer ignored this advicein this case, when this guy walked
into the Home Depot, you do not knowmore not everybody can be Ron Swanson.
It's so true.
He drove to the other side of theairport to search for matching bolts.
(51:20):
It was now about 5:15 AM andin a dark corner of the hangar.
He continued looking for new bolts,identical to the wrong ones that
he had removed from the plane.
But in the poor lighting.
His luck ran out.
He thought the new boltsmatched the old ones, which were
still wrong, but they didn't.
Oh, so he was wrong fromthe wrong he was wrong.
(51:40):
Twi, yes.
We're now double wrong.
We are wrong squared.
He selected bolts that were just overtwo hundredths of an inch too narrow.
A tiny difference withcatastrophic consequences.
To put this into perspective, , twohundredths of an inch is about
half a millimeter, roughly thethickness of five sheets of paper.
(52:03):
It's a difference so small thatyou probably wouldn't notice it
by eye unless you're my husband,especially in poor lighting.
But it was enough to completelycompromise the strength of
the windscreen installation.
Returning to the aircraft, he stretchedover the plane and began installing these
new bolts, working at an awkward angle.
(52:27):
He couldn't see that the newbolts didn't fit correctly.
He finished at 6:00 AM.
Having completed the work on schedule,the plane was now ready to be handed
over to the captain and his crew, butit was a disaster waiting to happen.
As we obviously know the next morning,as the flight climbed to 17,300 feet,
(52:48):
the difference in pressure between thesealed hole and the thin atmosphere
outside was increasing rapidly.
And Zach, as you called when we were likefour and a half minutes into the episode.
It was absolutely a pressure issue.
Science bitch, science bitch.
(53:09):
This pressure was looking for aweakness and it found one of those
incorrectly sized bolts for ourinvestigator, Stewart Cooling.
Finding out what happened thatnight was only the first step.
He needed to understand the deeper reasonsbehind the horrific sequence of events,
why the engineer did what he did, andwhether this was an isolated incident
(53:33):
or a symptom of a much bigger problem.
Like if this is happening inside ofthis factory, yeah, it could be really,
really catastrophic in what was at thetime, a very revolutionary approach.
I.
Coling brought in a behavioralpsychologist to analyze why
the maintenance engineermade the mistakes he did.
(53:54):
So that's like a really fascinatingthing to do, especially at this time.
This is 1990, right?
Human factors is the study of how peopleinteract with systems, equipment, and
procedures, recognizing that even the mostskilled professionals are still human.
At the end of the day.
(54:14):
Everybody has limitations.
Everybody is able to make mistakes.
It looks at how factors likefatigue, stress, workplace
culture, cognitive biases.
All of those can affectperformance and safety.
So this is the science of understandingwhy smart people sometimes do dumb shit.
The investigation revealed thatthe maintenance team in Birmingham
(54:37):
was under significant pressure,and this is very similar to what
we're hearing currently at Boeing.
Mm.
Okay.
So this is, this is like we'rewe're getting ties to kind of
current issues that we're havingin airplane maintenance and safety.
They had a lot of work.
It was all done at night, and often it wasmore than they could reasonably handle.
(54:58):
They had developedshortcuts as many humans do.
They just figured out, you know, work.
Smarter work.
Yeah, work smarter, not harder,except it didn't work out that way.
Clearly the engineer admittedthat he trusted his own judgment
more than official procedures.
This psychological approach, theinvestigation took air accident
(55:20):
prevention to a new level.
By understanding the pressures thatled to an otherwise proficient engineer
making a really significant mistake whilebeing fully certain that he was doing
the right thing, the investigators couldrecommend changes to prevent similar
accidents from happening in the future.
So in the aftermath, the crewobviously was treated as heroes.
(55:43):
Alistair Atchison was awarded the PolarisAward for his exceptional airmanship,
as well as the Queen's commendation forvaluable service in the air when the
crew returned to Birmingham airport.
They received an emotional welcome.
As they walked through the building.
The entire airport fell silent, andthen all the ground staff and check-in
(56:05):
personnel stood and applauded them.
It was really an incredibly moving moment.
Their colleagues were applauding ateam that had demonstrated the highest
level of professionalism that a cabincrew, can have by working together
through unbelievably extraordinarycircumstances, and a co-pilot who
took control and worked alone tobring everybody safely to the ground.
(56:30):
The crew members each dealt withtheir experiences differently.
For Nigel, our amazing flight attendant,who was the first one to grab the captain.
The impact was incredibly profound.
He later admitted that he thoughtabout the incident every single
day, and he believed that it wouldaffect him until the end of his days.
(56:51):
Nigel, along with Simon and Sue eventuallyleft their flying careers behind.
John remained with British Airways,, thechief steward, but transferred to long
haul flights, as those aircraft had noresemblance to the plane that he was in.
I think it's fair to be like, Idon't love this type of air plane.
That kind of freaks me out.
(57:12):
Alright, let's talk about our copilot.
Alistair.
He obviously saved the flight.
He continued his flying careerwith British Airways later joining,
channel Express, which became JetTwo, and he flew until his retirement
on his 65th birthday in 2015.
I know as for the captain,Tim Lancaster, he lived,
(57:37):
well, I'm not sure how, howmany broken bones did he have?
Okay, let's talk about whathappened because this is
obviously completely insane.
As his apparently lifeless body was takenfrom the plane, he was actually beginning
to emerge from his horrific adventure.
This is what Tim rememberedabout the ordeal.
There was this big bang anoise, all of the air escaping.
(58:01):
I remember watching the windscreenmove away from the aircraft and
then it had gone like a bullet.
It had disappeared into the distance.
He was aware of being outsideof the airplane, but remarkably
said, that didn't really botherme a great deal, a squeeze me.
It bothers me a great deal.
(58:21):
That would be a big bother.
I'm ex, I'm extremely bothered.
His most vivid memory wasstruggling to breathe because
he was facing into the airflow.
So he actually managed to turn his body.
So he was looking back alongthe top of the aircraft.
(58:42):
And he was then able to breathe.
The human body's response to extremeconditions is so fascinating and
sometimes incredibly surprising.
In frigid temperatures, the bodybegins to shut down non-essential
functions to preserve.
Core temperature and protect vital organs.
Essentially, hibernation blood flowis redirected from the extremities
(59:07):
to the brain, heart, and lungs.
This physiological responsecombined with the relatively short
duration of exposure, we know thatit was about 22 minutes total.
Likely helped Lancaster survivewhat absolutely should have
been a completely fatal event.
Yeah, that just sounds insane.
(59:27):
Okay.
How many bones do you think he broke?
Alright.
Um, if every indi does eachindividual bone in the back count?
No, you can just say like his back.
And I would guess that hehas some fractures in his
skull and cheekbones and I.
His back was broken.
(59:48):
Some ribs.
Okay.
I'm gonna say like, Idon't know, 10 or 12 bones.
Yeah, it's like that's,that's a, that's a lot.
You know, he went througha really traumatic thing.
Mm-hmm.
The physical trauma that hesuffered was extremely limited.
A bone fracture in his rightarm and wrist, a broken left
thumb, a bit of bruising, somefrostbite, and a bit of shock.
(01:00:13):
He had less shock than me.
Within five months he'd made afull recovery and was flying again.
Nope.
And he continued his careeruntil reaching British Airways.
Mandatory retirement age.
Then he continued flyingfor EasyJet until 2008.
(01:00:35):
Wow.
Thank God they held onto his legs.
They held onto his legs and helived, he lived like he had a Subaru.
Yes, he did.
They lived.
They, yes, and he lived.
I am so glad that we got to start offthis podcast with a survival story,
because I'm gonna be honest, um, manyof the stories that we will cover on
(01:00:57):
this show, he's not a hundred percentsurvival, will not have happy endings.
So it's fun for us to start off andbe like, wow, it's a miracle and
everyone lived and everything's great.
, because it, it's gonna,it's gonna get dark.
. That is our story for today.
That's a heck of a story.
I know.
I can't believe he lived and he lived,only had a couple broken things going on.
(01:01:22):
No major bones.
He lived and the whole thing happenedbecause of incorrectly sized.
Bolts, pay your mechanics more.
Okay.
Well, alright.
If you enjoyed this episode,please rate, review and subscribe
wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on social media andour handles will be in the show notes join
(01:01:46):
us next week when we will be discussinganother incredible aviation incident.
And actually I'll give you guys a littlespoiler 'cause I'm really excited.
Zach and I are taking a vacation,we are going to an, which is part
of the Caribbean Islands, and I amgoing to tell Zach a story about
(01:02:07):
the airport that we are flying into.
Mm-hmm.
In Eng.
Okay.
Okay.
Until then, remember to stow your traytables, fasten your seat belts, and
prepare for the unexpected, because notevery trip reaches its final destination.
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