In this episode, Chris and Jeremiah go over the terrifying story of Flight 5390 and also discuss if eyewitness accounts of the unknown actually prove anything.
- Flight 5390 News Report | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sej9Q3HlzrE
- Support us on Patreon for bonus content and ad-free episodes at https://www.patreon.com/unnervedpodcast
- Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/unnervedpodcast
- Subscribe to the UNNERVED YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@unnervedpodcast
- Write us with your unnerving story at THEUNNERVEDPODCAST@GMAIL.COM
- Intro/Outro Music by Karl Casey at White Bat Audio
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
From HP Studio. This is the unnerved banter.
Welcome back to The unnerved banter.
(00:31):
It's the show where we discuss topics that are strange
terrifying. And sometimes just plain silly.
I'm your host Chris Fricke. If you're more used to the story
episodes, this is a little bit different.
It's more of a conversational platform and this week we'll be
going over the terrifying story of flight 53. 90, we also
(00:56):
discuss if eyewitness accounts of the Own actually proves
anything. I'll be joined Again by Jeremiah
and I hope you guys enjoy this episode.
Welcome back to the unnerved banter and once again, I have my
co-host. Mr. Jeremiah Harlow.
Thanks for being here again. Jer how are you doing?
(01:19):
It's a me, sorry, doing pretty well.
Chris, I found the mother lode of morel mushrooms today.
That's right. Right?
So two years looking finally found him.
Nice man. I wish we were still there
because then we could fry up some, I could take a little
nibble. That sounds delicious.
Mmm. Oh man, if you've never had some
(01:42):
kind of like wild found wild foraged mushroom, you've got to
try it sometime. What are the mushrooms most
popular? Like in grocery stores where
those called button mushrooms orBellow?
No Portobello. That Portobello.
Okay. Pour Hello, mushrooms.
But anyways. Thank you for tuning in to our
(02:02):
shroom cast. Now we're going to jump into the
actual topic at hand. So this is the story of flight
be a 5390. I will not be referring to that
very often because as a long thing to remember, but here's
what happened on that fateful day on the Sunday morning of
June 10th 1990, 81, passengers boarded a British Airways flight
(02:28):
from Birmingham International. Airport Bound for the coastal
Resort town of Malaga, probably saying that wrong, but if you
know me, you know, I pronounce names very poorly.
So get used to it because there's a lot of names coming up
here. So, with passengers on the plane
and wheels up on schedule at, 7:20 a.m. the aircraft was
(02:53):
steadily approaching and cruising altitude as Captain Tim
Lancaster and co-pilot Alistair Atchinson, released their
shoulder harnesses and settled in for the three-hour flight.
So at this point as you know when you're on a plane there's
the seat belt sign. Please stay fastened on the
(03:13):
take-off once they reach Altitude like goes off, you're
free to roam the cabin, go to the bathroom, all that good
stuff, hmm? So the cabin crew, then got to
work preparing their trolleys with the meal and drinks and
services as they do for the passengers.
So everyone's calm. Everyone is relaxed,
everything's going fine on this flight. 13 minutes into the
(03:35):
flight. They're currently at seventeen
thousand three hundred feet and all of a sudden a loud bang came
from the cockpit as the Internaldoor burst off its hinges, the
cabin suddenly filled with condensation mist and the crew.
Knew at, once that something hadgone horribly wrong, I don't
(03:56):
know the full science of this, but when you're in the cabin,
once a window is broken or something like that, all of that
pressure. Decompresses is that?
Is that how I want to say it? Yeah, I think so.
I don't know. The science have it either, but
when the door blows off of its hinges, I Think most people
(04:17):
would guess. Something's terribly wrong.
I like at 7:59, Brad, Efron who had had Chipotle before?
Getting on the plane, went into the bathroom, two minutes later.
The the door blew off of its hinges, filling the cabin with
condensation. No, not that door.
(04:40):
It's a different door. We need the bathroom door, the
flight attendants called a Code Brown.
Oh gosh. He had blown a hole right in the
side of the plane, the door between the pilots and the
passengers that door had blown off its hinges.
So what happened is a process called explosive decompression
(05:02):
flight attendant Nigel Ogden whohad just offered the pilots.
A cup of tea was the first one to To see what was happening,
Captain. Tim Lancaster had been sucked
through a gapping hole where thewindscreen should have been.
So I want clarify. First off, they're calling it a
windscreen. I think it just makes more sense
(05:24):
to call it a window, the window,and front of the pilot had blown
out. So, Nigel Ogden, the flight
attendant looks forward. And sees the captain sucked out
of this And oh, okay, he's partially sucked out.
His torso was pinned to the outside of the aircraft, by the
(05:45):
force of the oncoming winds, while his legs were jammed
firmly inside the cockpit and his feet, somehow got caught up
on the controls of the plane andit was just barely holding him
in place. So, any moment now, he's going
to be completely sucked out of the plane and the flight
attendant Nigel Ogden quickly rushes.
(06:08):
To him and grabs his legs. So, at the same time, all of
this wind is getting forced intothe plane.
The door flew off papers are flying everywhere every it's
just complete chaos. And so this flight attendant is
just trying to keep the pilot from completely being sucked out
of the plane. Copilot, kitchen sun' had
(06:30):
managed to stay in his seat because remember like they're
they don't have their seat beltson.
See, that's why I never take my seatbelt off.
Yeah. You might as well have just kept
your seatbelt on it really wouldhave helped him out in this
situation, but the copilot managed to stay in his seat and
immediately took the controls totry to take control of the
(06:50):
plane. So, at this point, they're
descending at 4,600 feet per minute through some of the
world's busiest air space. The first officer was desperate
to avoid a mid-air collision andstabilize the air pressure to
bring oxygen back into. To the cabin.
So they're so high that you know, people can't breathe.
(07:13):
I mean, including the actual pilot himself who is outside of
the plane, they didn't have oxygen masks at this time in
this plane. Apparently is that true though?
Like they didn't even have oxygen masks So This Plane they
may have had oxygen masks at that time, but this plane was
(07:33):
already 20 years old. It was a really old model and it
was about to retire anyway. So this apparent model did not
have oxygen masks and so yeah, the copilot's bringing the
playing down, it's a really busyairspace, you know, typically
you call in traffic control to get permission to go down in
elevation or go up in elevation,there was no time for that.
(07:56):
So they just drove down and within 148 seconds, the copilot
managed to bring the playing to a level of 11,000 feet.
So originally we were at Nineteen thousand three hundred
feet and then he brought down to11,000 feet quite quickly.
So, in the meantime, Simon Rogers and Sue Gibbons who made
(08:19):
up the rest of the cabin crew, tried to calm the passengers.
Urging everyone to re fasten their seatbelts and take the
emergency brace position, prepare to die, basically the
copilot called air traffic control, but they could barely
hear him because of the Roaring winds that were Push through the
window while the other crew thenrushed to the front and hooked
(08:44):
his arms. Through the seat belt of the
crew jump seat behind the captain and also gripped onto
the pilot. The two men held on and try to
pull him back in, but the suction and wind, it was just
too strong. They couldn't pull him in, so
they were just barely holding him there.
So as the pilot is outside, his body is violently being bashed,
(09:06):
and flung up against. The side of the plane.
And the crew is fearing the worst.
At this point, they're thinking to themselves, there's no way
he's alive. So just imagine holding a guy by
his legs and hearing Pang Pang Pang.
And just seeing this guy flailing outside, they could see
his head bleeding profusely and his eyes wide open while he was
(09:29):
banging up against the plane. Jeez.
And there was like a little sidewindow or something where they
could see this happening to. So if they lose their grip, He
very well potentially could be sucked into the plane's engine.
That is on the left side Wing. Finally the copilot was able to
get ahold of air traffic controland asked if they could land at
(09:52):
the nearby Southampton airport, this is the actual conversation
between the copilot and air traffic control.
So Air Traffic Control says 5390, we've been advised.
Its pressurization failure is That the only problem you have -
sir the captain, he's half sucked out of the airplane.
(10:15):
I believe he's dead. Roger, that is copied flight
attendants holding onto him as well as they can.
Requesting emergency facilities for the captain.
I think he's dead. I love air traffic controls
response. Once they say, we think he's
dead Air Traffic, Control replies.
(10:36):
Roger, that is copied like very Lee, Roger that Captain half out
of plane understood that is weird.
I don't know. I guess they're just trying to
be professional, but if I was Air Traffic Control, I'd be
like, say what? What?
Oh, oh no. Oh no.
But no, they're just like, okay,that's copied.
(10:57):
So the copilot was able to bringthe plane down for a landing, A
Perfect Landing and then at thatpoint, guess how much time had
passed? That's what.
Was going to ask if you didn't bring it up.
I'm gonna guess something like 30 minutes.
Actually yeah that's about flight time.
That's about exactly how long they're in the air but guess how
(11:21):
long the pilot was outside of the airplane?
10 minutes, 20 minutes. Hmm so they had only been in the
air for 10 minutes before that happened about 13 minutes.
Okay. So technically would be like 33
minutes total. Yeah but the pilot.
Outside of the airplane being dragged.
(11:41):
Yeah. For 20 minutes which is kind of
an insane. You know, if you imagine going
out roller coaster, like, how long is the roller coaster?
Take. Like two minutes.
If that, you know, I mean, depending on the ride, of
course, but it's exhilarating. I don't know.
I hate roller coasters. Do you?
I didn't know that I do man, so he was hanging out all the way
until they were landed. Like, they weren't able to pull
(12:04):
him back in, right? So they tried pulling him in but
the force was Is just too strong.
They couldn't pull him in, untilthey landed.
Yeah, that's, it's pretty impressive.
So they hung on to him the wholetime, right?
Then what then what Chris once they landed.
As soon as the aircraft came to a stop Ogden and Gibbons
instructed the passengers to disembark as usual off the
(12:27):
forward and rear stairs, Emergency Services rush to
relieve, the crew Still Holding Onto Lancaster's bruised and
beaten body, but to their astonishment.
The pilot was still alive. The captain suffered from
frostbite and fractured elbow wrist, and thumb, and severe
shock Keith. Yeah, dude was still alive.
(12:50):
So we'll upload a photo on our Instagram with pictures of the
crew and everything. But on the side of the plane,
where the pilots head was there's just a splatter of blood
because of being smacked up against the plane repeatedly, he
He's bleeding from his nose and from his head.
(13:10):
And there's just as a splatter of Blood on the side of this
plane, this guy was just, you know, thrown around like a rag
doll after 20 minutes of being exposed to sub-freezing
temperatures and hurricane forcewinds.
Lancaster, the pilot had lost Consciousness, a lot of it, he
doesn't remember but when the paramedics finally got to him
(13:33):
and as he was being hauled away in a Stretcher, he eventually
woke up and guess what? The first word.
That was mouth. Where should I put my seat belt
back on? You would think he'd say
something like that? I'll take that t.
Now, kind of first thing. He said, was I want to eat.
Oh, okay. I want to eat so some brain
(13:55):
damage as well then, huh. I want to eat.
That's what I say when I wake upin the morning.
Yeah, wow. So he was conscious that soon
after. Yeah, not too long after he woke
up. So he survived I mean, is that
the end of the story? Now there's a little bit more.
Okay. Yeah.
Why do you think this happened? Why did the window break in?
(14:16):
I mean, first thing that came tomind really was the bird thing
but then also that it was faultyyou know those some kind of
crackage. So what actually happened was
like I said this plane was like 20 years old, it's an old plane,
they're updating things, they'reupgrading things just like you
would on an old car. Like sometimes you have to add a
new mirror, you know, new whatever.
(14:38):
So, Not long before that flight a guy put in a new window and he
put in the wrong sized bolts that hold in the window.
So these bolts were just a tiny bit smaller if I understand it
right? The guy goofed, okay?
The guy goofed real big and everything passed inspection,
(14:59):
but apparently that little detail somehow no one caught
that. So if you try putting in like a
screw or Bolt, It into a hole with the threats, you know,
sometimes bolts will hold even though they're not the right
size, they'll hold a little bit,but if there's a big force on
that, like I don't know hurricane like wins.
(15:20):
It's gonna strip and that bolt is not going to hold.
In this case, that's what happened and then the window
clearly came out. So the guy that actually made
this mistake, he went to the pilots home with flowers and
wanted to apologize to the pilot.
The Pilot's Wife was so angry, the pilot actually sent his wife
(15:43):
to another room and they got to talking and he apologized
profusely the guy that put in the bolts wrong.
And over the years, this guy andthe pilot actually became good
friends. Wow.
And the pilot himself after six months, I believe return back to
his job as a pilot and he retired from it.
(16:04):
Also the crew that was there. They actually return back to
work a couple. Four weeks later.
So, in the end kind of a happy ending no one ended up dying but
most definitely unnerving. Especially on the pilots side of
things, I wanted to play a news interview.
It's a short interview that covered this story.
(16:25):
Back in the 90s, the BAC one-eleven was flying when a
cockpit windshield next to the captain was blown out as NBC's.
Dennis Murphy reports, the crew had to move quickly, British
Airways Captain. Timothy Lancaster is recovering
tonight from a fractured elbow frostbite and the scare of his
life Lancaster was piloting. This British Jack, that's his
(16:48):
blood by the window. He was on his way from
Birmingham England to Malaga Spain when all hell broke loose
his side cockpit windshield blewout four miles up an explosion.
Decompression Lancaster was sucked halfway out the window
inside the cockpit. Flight attendant.
Nigel Ogden made a flying tacklefor the pilots ankles.
(17:08):
He Pull him in Simon Rogers, theother Steward, belted himself to
the pilot seat and got a better grip on Lancaster.
Copilot, Alistair Atchison grabbed an oxygen mask, and put
the plane into a steep, dive half in half out, Lancaster was
buffeted by three hundred mile an hour winds, the temperature
was 25 degrees below zero and his first thoughts was that he
(17:29):
should keep breathing. He says that he doesn't
recollect being conscious throughout the incident.
He did try to shout back. To the crew from his position.
But he said he didn't think thatthey were able to hear him after
15 minutes. The jet made an emergency
landing in the south of England with Lancaster still dangling
from the cockpit rescue crews, pulled him out through the
(17:52):
window. Some of the 84 passengers had
watched it all through the open cockpit door.
I said I could see more than halfway definitely and they were
trying to hold him up and somebody else was trying to
bring us things. She did.
We're all back here. The window that blew out had
just been installed Friday. British Airways is reviewing its
(18:13):
maintenance procedures for the Jack Captain.
Lancaster pose today with the crew which saved his life did he
think about dying? It did cross my mind.
He said for a moment or two in the video, did you see the blood
stain on the side of the plane as well?
Yeah, that's crazy. I'll put the link to the video
in the show notes. I think a lot of people are like
(18:34):
me in the fact that every time Ifly, there's a little bit of
Business. It's not my favorite thing to
do. There's just this feeling of
you're just out of control. Once you get up there to me at
least it just feels so unnatural.
I don't hate it. And it's kind of fun.
Obviously seeing all the the skystuff, but at the same time you
(18:55):
also just sort of feel like I'm not supposed to be up here.
It's a little bit terrifying at least to me?
Yeah for sure. I mean there's always that
thought in the back of your headI personally love flying.
I've gone skydiving. Like I No problem with it.
But yeah, if you dwell on it andwhat's actually happening, it's
like yeah we're not supposed to be up here.
(19:16):
Like, what are we doing? This is this is crazy.
And flying is, it's a big mentalbarrier.
You have to get over but at the same time to we jump in cars.
That's just as crazy in my opinion.
But you don't really think of itbecause it's part of everyday
life. Yeah.
Statistically it's like it's more likely that you get into a
car accident. But there's something about
(19:37):
that. The fact that you're still On
the ground. That's the that's the weird part
for me. But actually, it's pretty
encouraging to hear stories likethis where stuff does go wrong
and they still make it out. Well about that.
There was something else I was going to throw on here.
You may have heard this on the news.
I think it was 2018. Did you hear about that girl
that got sucked out of a window.It was a passenger.
(20:00):
Hmm kind of a similar situation,I guess an engine on a wing
malfunctioned and debris from itflew back.
Back and broke a window that passenger was obviously right
next to and she got sucked out of the window and they were
holding on to her as well. She was partially sucked out but
(20:20):
unfortunately, she actually didn't survive G.
So this has happened before in. This was just in recent years
and it'll happen again. I hope not done.
Done done. Yeah.
But that was terrifying. And that was because of an
engine malfunction and debris from it and everything's yeah,
yeah. Pretty wild.
So what do you have for us? Jeremiah, what do I have for
(20:42):
you? So basically okay we're talking
Bigfoot sightings we're talking UFOs, we're talking paranormal
or unnerving interactions with something weird.
So let's just say 99% of it. Even 99.9% is either somebody
making it up or somebody's imagining something or
(21:03):
misidentifying misidentifying. Sure.
Somebody in a costume. That still means that there's
point one percent, that is not that.
Yep. And and I would argue a much
higher percentage than that. Like even if you're saying like
95% is made up imagined faked ormisunderstood that still leaves
(21:27):
us, 5% of experiences across theboard that have to be something.
I think that that's super fascinating especially for any
potential listeners who You know, gotten into the Paranormal
or other podcasts about Cryptidsor anything like that.
It's kind of a common concept tohear talked about, but if you
(21:50):
haven't listened to other stuff,you may not have heard it.
It's really fascinating to me because if you ask almost any
person, do you think truly, 100%of all of these experiences are
made up, or fake or misunderstood like truly 100%
Like in all honesty and I would say, most people would say that
(22:14):
there's not one hundred percent of them, that that would be that
way because you take the people that are seeing stuff, like,
let's just say Bigfoot. There's a good chunk of the
people that have seen, somethingthat are just kind of lunatics,
you know, whatever. They're making it up, they know,
they're making it up. Yep.
And then, there's a good chunk, you know, they want to see
something or they really push the evidence to make it
(22:34):
something, right? But then, there's a good chunk,
That are just upstanding citizens that weren't trying to
see anything, that have no previous desire to look, but
just happen to see something that was totally unexplainable.
And then so you take a chunk of those people.
And you say, okay, well, this percentage of them,
misunderstood what they saw or it was maybe somebody in a
(22:56):
costume trying to trick them, but even then, you still have a
percentage that are just truly upstanding saying, conscious
people that saw something totally unexplainable.
Oil. It's fascinating to me and that
to me is what kind of made me a believer in in a lot of it at
the very least, to say, I don't know exactly what it is but I
(23:20):
don't believe 100% of it is false, right?
I think back to what you're saying when it comes to
Witnesses and especially those who have literally nothing to
gain, they're just normal peoplecompletely.
Whether it's someone that sees the Cryptid or UFO, Ever the
witnesses who have nothing to gain.
(23:41):
They're very down-to-earth people and you know, don't want
anything out of it. They're just being helpful.
Really. You know, they just, they're
curious just like we are and themore we talk about it the more
will understand. What said thing is another part
of this that is compelling, are those reports that have never
(24:03):
been reported because of fear ofridicule?
Most of the time is the Reason why people don't talk about it,
they might share it later on in their life or they might share
it quietly with a friend or something like that and they
don't want it spread, you know, a lot of people experience
things. They'll see something that they
can explain. They're afraid to talk about it
(24:25):
or if they do talk about it, youknow, they don't want anything
out of it. They're just sharing what they
experience. If you've listened to the
episode chased by UFO, I think this is a prime example.
The guy that that shared his Variants on the podcast.
If you haven't listened to it, Go and listen to it.
He was as much of a skeptic unbeliever whatever you want to
(24:46):
call it as anyone. You know, this whole experience,
terrified him, but he was brave enough to come forward and share
his experience. And I really commend him for
that. It's not that he was out looking
for these things. This light, that chased him, you
know, it was terrifying. He had nothing to gain.
He's a very humble, very down-to-earth guy, kind of the
(25:07):
same with the Sasquatch story that we did the Bigfoot at The
Boundary Waters is that the nameof the story I can't remember
what you titled it. But yeah, something like that.
Listen to that one. Also, same thing, the guy is
very experienced Outdoorsman very down to earth.
Very normal guy, has nothing to gain from this story but he
shared his experience. He said if there were a creature
(25:30):
to exist and hide anywhere on Earth, it would be there.
There's so many places to hide and it would just make For them
to be in that area. So both of these guys they don't
fully know what they experiencedbut they know it was something.
Yeah again I commend them for coming forward because the more
we talked about this, the better.
(25:52):
So you think like how many things could be going on out
there and we just wouldn't know.Yep.
Or they just go unseen by anyone.
Literally anyone or maybe some random guy on a street corner?
Yeah, he sees some weird thing flying around.
He's not going to go write a blog about it.
He's not gonna To create a YouTube channel and if he did it
probably wouldn't get noticed. So there's there could be a lot
(26:13):
more being seen than what we're aware of same goes for like
Bigfoot stuff, for whatever. I mean, I was out mushroom
hunting today and they are superhard to see, even right
underneath your feet. And so, you get out into some of
these super remote areas and youcould, I don't know, I don't
know what I think about Bigfoot,but I think it falls into that,
just that percentage breakdown of like, okay, there's this many
(26:36):
sightings is this many people that saw it?
There's Many people within that group that are actually
reputable sources. There's no way they all made it
up. There's no way that their
stories would coincide over hundreds of years in what they
see and what it sounds like the interactions when you get into a
(26:56):
numbers game, it's almost like there has to be something you
know I don't know what it is, exactly could be paranormal
could be Supernatural, could be physical.
National. I don't know but there's
something and that's indisputable like there is
something that people are seeingwhether you're talking UFOs or
(27:18):
Bigfoot or other stuff. Yep, exactly.
Okay. So we're going to do a new
segment of the show where we read a review that you guys
leave for the podcast. So we're reading reviews from
Apple podcast. So if you have apple podcast,
please feel free to leave. Review and we may read it on the
(27:41):
podcast. And yeah, thank you guys so much
for the support. You've been showing.
It's been super helpful and encouraging to see those.
So yeah, we thought it'd be fun to read some of those reviews on
Spotify. Unfortunately, you can't leave a
review except for like a five-star which we really
appreciate. If you haven't done that yet,
please do that again, that helpsthe podcast.
(28:03):
Get seen more, if we deserve it.You know, we're trying to earn
it. We're trying to Earn it.
Yeah, yeah, but no truly, it is pretty awesome.
A lot of people are like, oh, rate and subscribe rate and
subscribe, but if you've never recorded a podcast, sometimes,
it feels like you're just speaking into the void.
So to have interaction like that, not only helps like boost
who gets to see the podcast and all that cool stuff.
(28:25):
But also it's just school. It feels like oh hey, there's
actually real people on the other end of this.
Yeah that are genuinely enjoyingwhat's what's being done and
appreciate the work and are partof the the Andy.
So it's really cool to see beyond just the promotion aspect
of it. Yeah, for sure if you guys want
(28:45):
to help out us and everything, we put into this leaving a
review rating, it if you take a minute to do that we'd really
appreciate that. So yeah, we're going to read a
review every banter episode. This first review comes from,
you know, how I am with names, please forgive me, but the
username is green Melman. Melamine.
(29:08):
It's like one word green melamine green melamine.
I don't know. Anyways, thanks for leaving a
review. She left a five stars and the
title is chilling, but in a fun way, nice, I've been thoroughly
enjoying listening over the pastfew weeks, I like to satisfy
that need for rather spooky stories without feeling truly
(29:32):
Disturbed and this fits that Niche for me.
Still when I'm not in the workout room listening to This
by myself, it keeps me on my toes.
Ha ha ha, although he hit some classic spooky topics hit on by
other podcast he comes on with stories.
I've never heard not to mention,there's something compelling
(29:52):
about stories of Everyday Peoplein Wild situations their stories
you won't really find anywhere else in those cases thank you so
much for the review, green melamine.
Thank you so much for listening.That's that's awesome.
Thanks for leaving that review. So Appreciate it next week.
We'll have a story episode and Ithink you guys are really gonna
(30:12):
like it. I'm excited to share that one
with you, but yeah, Jared you have anything to say before we
sign off. Thanks for listening.
It's been super fun.
From HP Studio. This is the unnerved banter.
Welcome back to The unnerved banter.
(00:31):
It's the show where we discuss topics that are strange
terrifying. And sometimes just plain silly.
I'm your host Chris Fricke. If you're more used to the story
episodes, this is a little bit different.
It's more of a conversational platform and this week we'll be
going over the terrifying story of flight 53. 90, we also
(00:56):
discuss if eyewitness accounts of the Own actually proves
anything. I'll be joined Again by Jeremiah
and I hope you guys enjoy this episode.
Welcome back to the unnerved banter and once again, I have my
co-host. Mr. Jeremiah Harlow.
Thanks for being here again. Jer how are you doing?
(01:19):
It's a me, sorry, doing pretty well.
Chris, I found the mother lode of morel mushrooms today.
That's right. Right?
So two years looking finally found him.
Nice man. I wish we were still there
because then we could fry up some, I could take a little
nibble. That sounds delicious.
Mmm. Oh man, if you've never had some
(01:42):
kind of like wild found wild foraged mushroom, you've got to
try it sometime. What are the mushrooms most
popular? Like in grocery stores where
those called button mushrooms orBellow?
No Portobello. That Portobello.
Okay. Pour Hello, mushrooms.
But anyways. Thank you for tuning in to our
(02:02):
shroom cast. Now we're going to jump into the
actual topic at hand. So this is the story of flight
be a 5390. I will not be referring to that
very often because as a long thing to remember, but here's
what happened on that fateful day on the Sunday morning of
June 10th 1990, 81, passengers boarded a British Airways flight
(02:28):
from Birmingham International. Airport Bound for the coastal
Resort town of Malaga, probably saying that wrong, but if you
know me, you know, I pronounce names very poorly.
So get used to it because there's a lot of names coming up
here. So, with passengers on the plane
and wheels up on schedule at, 7:20 a.m. the aircraft was
(02:53):
steadily approaching and cruising altitude as Captain Tim
Lancaster and co-pilot Alistair Atchinson, released their
shoulder harnesses and settled in for the three-hour flight.
So at this point as you know when you're on a plane there's
the seat belt sign. Please stay fastened on the
(03:13):
take-off once they reach Altitude like goes off, you're
free to roam the cabin, go to the bathroom, all that good
stuff, hmm? So the cabin crew, then got to
work preparing their trolleys with the meal and drinks and
services as they do for the passengers.
So everyone's calm. Everyone is relaxed,
everything's going fine on this flight. 13 minutes into the
(03:35):
flight. They're currently at seventeen
thousand three hundred feet and all of a sudden a loud bang came
from the cockpit as the Internaldoor burst off its hinges, the
cabin suddenly filled with condensation mist and the crew.
Knew at, once that something hadgone horribly wrong, I don't
(03:56):
know the full science of this, but when you're in the cabin,
once a window is broken or something like that, all of that
pressure. Decompresses is that?
Is that how I want to say it? Yeah, I think so.
I don't know. The science have it either, but
when the door blows off of its hinges, I Think most people
(04:17):
would guess. Something's terribly wrong.
I like at 7:59, Brad, Efron who had had Chipotle before?
Getting on the plane, went into the bathroom, two minutes later.
The the door blew off of its hinges, filling the cabin with
condensation. No, not that door.
(04:40):
It's a different door. We need the bathroom door, the
flight attendants called a Code Brown.
Oh gosh. He had blown a hole right in the
side of the plane, the door between the pilots and the
passengers that door had blown off its hinges.
So what happened is a process called explosive decompression
(05:02):
flight attendant Nigel Ogden whohad just offered the pilots.
A cup of tea was the first one to To see what was happening,
Captain. Tim Lancaster had been sucked
through a gapping hole where thewindscreen should have been.
So I want clarify. First off, they're calling it a
windscreen. I think it just makes more sense
(05:24):
to call it a window, the window,and front of the pilot had blown
out. So, Nigel Ogden, the flight
attendant looks forward. And sees the captain sucked out
of this And oh, okay, he's partially sucked out.
His torso was pinned to the outside of the aircraft, by the
(05:45):
force of the oncoming winds, while his legs were jammed
firmly inside the cockpit and his feet, somehow got caught up
on the controls of the plane andit was just barely holding him
in place. So, any moment now, he's going
to be completely sucked out of the plane and the flight
attendant Nigel Ogden quickly rushes.
(06:08):
To him and grabs his legs. So, at the same time, all of
this wind is getting forced intothe plane.
The door flew off papers are flying everywhere every it's
just complete chaos. And so this flight attendant is
just trying to keep the pilot from completely being sucked out
of the plane. Copilot, kitchen sun' had
(06:30):
managed to stay in his seat because remember like they're
they don't have their seat beltson.
See, that's why I never take my seatbelt off.
Yeah. You might as well have just kept
your seatbelt on it really wouldhave helped him out in this
situation, but the copilot managed to stay in his seat and
immediately took the controls totry to take control of the
(06:50):
plane. So, at this point, they're
descending at 4,600 feet per minute through some of the
world's busiest air space. The first officer was desperate
to avoid a mid-air collision andstabilize the air pressure to
bring oxygen back into. To the cabin.
So they're so high that you know, people can't breathe.
(07:13):
I mean, including the actual pilot himself who is outside of
the plane, they didn't have oxygen masks at this time in
this plane. Apparently is that true though?
Like they didn't even have oxygen masks So This Plane they
may have had oxygen masks at that time, but this plane was
(07:33):
already 20 years old. It was a really old model and it
was about to retire anyway. So this apparent model did not
have oxygen masks and so yeah, the copilot's bringing the
playing down, it's a really busyairspace, you know, typically
you call in traffic control to get permission to go down in
elevation or go up in elevation,there was no time for that.
(07:56):
So they just drove down and within 148 seconds, the copilot
managed to bring the playing to a level of 11,000 feet.
So originally we were at Nineteen thousand three hundred
feet and then he brought down to11,000 feet quite quickly.
So, in the meantime, Simon Rogers and Sue Gibbons who made
(08:19):
up the rest of the cabin crew, tried to calm the passengers.
Urging everyone to re fasten their seatbelts and take the
emergency brace position, prepare to die, basically the
copilot called air traffic control, but they could barely
hear him because of the Roaring winds that were Push through the
window while the other crew thenrushed to the front and hooked
(08:44):
his arms. Through the seat belt of the
crew jump seat behind the captain and also gripped onto
the pilot. The two men held on and try to
pull him back in, but the suction and wind, it was just
too strong. They couldn't pull him in, so
they were just barely holding him there.
So as the pilot is outside, his body is violently being bashed,
(09:06):
and flung up against. The side of the plane.
And the crew is fearing the worst.
At this point, they're thinking to themselves, there's no way
he's alive. So just imagine holding a guy by
his legs and hearing Pang Pang Pang.
And just seeing this guy flailing outside, they could see
his head bleeding profusely and his eyes wide open while he was
(09:29):
banging up against the plane. Jeez.
And there was like a little sidewindow or something where they
could see this happening to. So if they lose their grip, He
very well potentially could be sucked into the plane's engine.
That is on the left side Wing. Finally the copilot was able to
get ahold of air traffic controland asked if they could land at
(09:52):
the nearby Southampton airport, this is the actual conversation
between the copilot and air traffic control.
So Air Traffic Control says 5390, we've been advised.
Its pressurization failure is That the only problem you have -
sir the captain, he's half sucked out of the airplane.
(10:15):
I believe he's dead. Roger, that is copied flight
attendants holding onto him as well as they can.
Requesting emergency facilities for the captain.
I think he's dead. I love air traffic controls
response. Once they say, we think he's
dead Air Traffic, Control replies.
(10:36):
Roger, that is copied like very Lee, Roger that Captain half out
of plane understood that is weird.
I don't know. I guess they're just trying to
be professional, but if I was Air Traffic Control, I'd be
like, say what? What?
Oh, oh no. Oh no.
But no, they're just like, okay,that's copied.
(10:57):
So the copilot was able to bringthe plane down for a landing, A
Perfect Landing and then at thatpoint, guess how much time had
passed? That's what.
Was going to ask if you didn't bring it up.
I'm gonna guess something like 30 minutes.
Actually yeah that's about flight time.
That's about exactly how long they're in the air but guess how
(11:21):
long the pilot was outside of the airplane?
10 minutes, 20 minutes. Hmm so they had only been in the
air for 10 minutes before that happened about 13 minutes.
Okay. So technically would be like 33
minutes total. Yeah but the pilot.
Outside of the airplane being dragged.
(11:41):
Yeah. For 20 minutes which is kind of
an insane. You know, if you imagine going
out roller coaster, like, how long is the roller coaster?
Take. Like two minutes.
If that, you know, I mean, depending on the ride, of
course, but it's exhilarating. I don't know.
I hate roller coasters. Do you?
I didn't know that I do man, so he was hanging out all the way
until they were landed. Like, they weren't able to pull
(12:04):
him back in, right? So they tried pulling him in but
the force was Is just too strong.
They couldn't pull him in, untilthey landed.
Yeah, that's, it's pretty impressive.
So they hung on to him the wholetime, right?
Then what then what Chris once they landed.
As soon as the aircraft came to a stop Ogden and Gibbons
instructed the passengers to disembark as usual off the
(12:27):
forward and rear stairs, Emergency Services rush to
relieve, the crew Still Holding Onto Lancaster's bruised and
beaten body, but to their astonishment.
The pilot was still alive. The captain suffered from
frostbite and fractured elbow wrist, and thumb, and severe
shock Keith. Yeah, dude was still alive.
(12:50):
So we'll upload a photo on our Instagram with pictures of the
crew and everything. But on the side of the plane,
where the pilots head was there's just a splatter of blood
because of being smacked up against the plane repeatedly, he
He's bleeding from his nose and from his head.
(13:10):
And there's just as a splatter of Blood on the side of this
plane, this guy was just, you know, thrown around like a rag
doll after 20 minutes of being exposed to sub-freezing
temperatures and hurricane forcewinds.
Lancaster, the pilot had lost Consciousness, a lot of it, he
doesn't remember but when the paramedics finally got to him
(13:33):
and as he was being hauled away in a Stretcher, he eventually
woke up and guess what? The first word.
That was mouth. Where should I put my seat belt
back on? You would think he'd say
something like that? I'll take that t.
Now, kind of first thing. He said, was I want to eat.
Oh, okay. I want to eat so some brain
(13:55):
damage as well then, huh. I want to eat.
That's what I say when I wake upin the morning.
Yeah, wow. So he was conscious that soon
after. Yeah, not too long after he woke
up. So he survived I mean, is that
the end of the story? Now there's a little bit more.
Okay. Yeah.
Why do you think this happened? Why did the window break in?
(14:16):
I mean, first thing that came tomind really was the bird thing
but then also that it was faultyyou know those some kind of
crackage. So what actually happened was
like I said this plane was like 20 years old, it's an old plane,
they're updating things, they'reupgrading things just like you
would on an old car. Like sometimes you have to add a
new mirror, you know, new whatever.
(14:38):
So, Not long before that flight a guy put in a new window and he
put in the wrong sized bolts that hold in the window.
So these bolts were just a tiny bit smaller if I understand it
right? The guy goofed, okay?
The guy goofed real big and everything passed inspection,
(14:59):
but apparently that little detail somehow no one caught
that. So if you try putting in like a
screw or Bolt, It into a hole with the threats, you know,
sometimes bolts will hold even though they're not the right
size, they'll hold a little bit,but if there's a big force on
that, like I don't know hurricane like wins.
(15:20):
It's gonna strip and that bolt is not going to hold.
In this case, that's what happened and then the window
clearly came out. So the guy that actually made
this mistake, he went to the pilots home with flowers and
wanted to apologize to the pilot.
The Pilot's Wife was so angry, the pilot actually sent his wife
(15:43):
to another room and they got to talking and he apologized
profusely the guy that put in the bolts wrong.
And over the years, this guy andthe pilot actually became good
friends. Wow.
And the pilot himself after six months, I believe return back to
his job as a pilot and he retired from it.
(16:04):
Also the crew that was there. They actually return back to
work a couple. Four weeks later.
So, in the end kind of a happy ending no one ended up dying but
most definitely unnerving. Especially on the pilots side of
things, I wanted to play a news interview.
It's a short interview that covered this story.
(16:25):
Back in the 90s, the BAC one-eleven was flying when a
cockpit windshield next to the captain was blown out as NBC's.
Dennis Murphy reports, the crew had to move quickly, British
Airways Captain. Timothy Lancaster is recovering
tonight from a fractured elbow frostbite and the scare of his
life Lancaster was piloting. This British Jack, that's his
(16:48):
blood by the window. He was on his way from
Birmingham England to Malaga Spain when all hell broke loose
his side cockpit windshield blewout four miles up an explosion.
Decompression Lancaster was sucked halfway out the window
inside the cockpit. Flight attendant.
Nigel Ogden made a flying tacklefor the pilots ankles.
(17:08):
He Pull him in Simon Rogers, theother Steward, belted himself to
the pilot seat and got a better grip on Lancaster.
Copilot, Alistair Atchison grabbed an oxygen mask, and put
the plane into a steep, dive half in half out, Lancaster was
buffeted by three hundred mile an hour winds, the temperature
was 25 degrees below zero and his first thoughts was that he
(17:29):
should keep breathing. He says that he doesn't
recollect being conscious throughout the incident.
He did try to shout back. To the crew from his position.
But he said he didn't think thatthey were able to hear him after
15 minutes. The jet made an emergency
landing in the south of England with Lancaster still dangling
from the cockpit rescue crews, pulled him out through the
(17:52):
window. Some of the 84 passengers had
watched it all through the open cockpit door.
I said I could see more than halfway definitely and they were
trying to hold him up and somebody else was trying to
bring us things. She did.
We're all back here. The window that blew out had
just been installed Friday. British Airways is reviewing its
(18:13):
maintenance procedures for the Jack Captain.
Lancaster pose today with the crew which saved his life did he
think about dying? It did cross my mind.
He said for a moment or two in the video, did you see the blood
stain on the side of the plane as well?
Yeah, that's crazy. I'll put the link to the video
in the show notes. I think a lot of people are like
(18:34):
me in the fact that every time Ifly, there's a little bit of
Business. It's not my favorite thing to
do. There's just this feeling of
you're just out of control. Once you get up there to me at
least it just feels so unnatural.
I don't hate it. And it's kind of fun.
Obviously seeing all the the skystuff, but at the same time you
(18:55):
also just sort of feel like I'm not supposed to be up here.
It's a little bit terrifying at least to me?
Yeah for sure. I mean there's always that
thought in the back of your headI personally love flying.
I've gone skydiving. Like I No problem with it.
But yeah, if you dwell on it andwhat's actually happening, it's
like yeah we're not supposed to be up here.
(19:16):
Like, what are we doing? This is this is crazy.
And flying is, it's a big mentalbarrier.
You have to get over but at the same time to we jump in cars.
That's just as crazy in my opinion.
But you don't really think of itbecause it's part of everyday
life. Yeah.
Statistically it's like it's more likely that you get into a
car accident. But there's something about
(19:37):
that. The fact that you're still On
the ground. That's the that's the weird part
for me. But actually, it's pretty
encouraging to hear stories likethis where stuff does go wrong
and they still make it out. Well about that.
There was something else I was going to throw on here.
You may have heard this on the news.
I think it was 2018. Did you hear about that girl
that got sucked out of a window.It was a passenger.
(20:00):
Hmm kind of a similar situation,I guess an engine on a wing
malfunctioned and debris from itflew back.
Back and broke a window that passenger was obviously right
next to and she got sucked out of the window and they were
holding on to her as well. She was partially sucked out but
(20:20):
unfortunately, she actually didn't survive G.
So this has happened before in. This was just in recent years
and it'll happen again. I hope not done.
Done done. Yeah.
But that was terrifying. And that was because of an
engine malfunction and debris from it and everything's yeah,
yeah. Pretty wild.
So what do you have for us? Jeremiah, what do I have for
(20:42):
you? So basically okay we're talking
Bigfoot sightings we're talking UFOs, we're talking paranormal
or unnerving interactions with something weird.
So let's just say 99% of it. Even 99.9% is either somebody
making it up or somebody's imagining something or
(21:03):
misidentifying misidentifying. Sure.
Somebody in a costume. That still means that there's
point one percent, that is not that.
Yep. And and I would argue a much
higher percentage than that. Like even if you're saying like
95% is made up imagined faked ormisunderstood that still leaves
(21:27):
us, 5% of experiences across theboard that have to be something.
I think that that's super fascinating especially for any
potential listeners who You know, gotten into the Paranormal
or other podcasts about Cryptidsor anything like that.
It's kind of a common concept tohear talked about, but if you
(21:50):
haven't listened to other stuff,you may not have heard it.
It's really fascinating to me because if you ask almost any
person, do you think truly, 100%of all of these experiences are
made up, or fake or misunderstood like truly 100%
Like in all honesty and I would say, most people would say that
(22:14):
there's not one hundred percent of them, that that would be that
way because you take the people that are seeing stuff, like,
let's just say Bigfoot. There's a good chunk of the
people that have seen, somethingthat are just kind of lunatics,
you know, whatever. They're making it up, they know,
they're making it up. Yep.
And then, there's a good chunk, you know, they want to see
something or they really push the evidence to make it
(22:34):
something, right? But then, there's a good chunk,
That are just upstanding citizens that weren't trying to
see anything, that have no previous desire to look, but
just happen to see something that was totally unexplainable.
And then so you take a chunk of those people.
And you say, okay, well, this percentage of them,
misunderstood what they saw or it was maybe somebody in a
(22:56):
costume trying to trick them, but even then, you still have a
percentage that are just truly upstanding saying, conscious
people that saw something totally unexplainable.
Oil. It's fascinating to me and that
to me is what kind of made me a believer in in a lot of it at
the very least, to say, I don't know exactly what it is but I
(23:20):
don't believe 100% of it is false, right?
I think back to what you're saying when it comes to
Witnesses and especially those who have literally nothing to
gain, they're just normal peoplecompletely.
Whether it's someone that sees the Cryptid or UFO, Ever the
witnesses who have nothing to gain.
(23:41):
They're very down-to-earth people and you know, don't want
anything out of it. They're just being helpful.
Really. You know, they just, they're
curious just like we are and themore we talk about it the more
will understand. What said thing is another part
of this that is compelling, are those reports that have never
(24:03):
been reported because of fear ofridicule?
Most of the time is the Reason why people don't talk about it,
they might share it later on in their life or they might share
it quietly with a friend or something like that and they
don't want it spread, you know, a lot of people experience
things. They'll see something that they
can explain. They're afraid to talk about it
(24:25):
or if they do talk about it, youknow, they don't want anything
out of it. They're just sharing what they
experience. If you've listened to the
episode chased by UFO, I think this is a prime example.
The guy that that shared his Variants on the podcast.
If you haven't listened to it, Go and listen to it.
He was as much of a skeptic unbeliever whatever you want to
(24:46):
call it as anyone. You know, this whole experience,
terrified him, but he was brave enough to come forward and share
his experience. And I really commend him for
that. It's not that he was out looking
for these things. This light, that chased him, you
know, it was terrifying. He had nothing to gain.
He's a very humble, very down-to-earth guy, kind of the
(25:07):
same with the Sasquatch story that we did the Bigfoot at The
Boundary Waters is that the nameof the story I can't remember
what you titled it. But yeah, something like that.
Listen to that one. Also, same thing, the guy is
very experienced Outdoorsman very down to earth.
Very normal guy, has nothing to gain from this story but he
shared his experience. He said if there were a creature
(25:30):
to exist and hide anywhere on Earth, it would be there.
There's so many places to hide and it would just make For them
to be in that area. So both of these guys they don't
fully know what they experiencedbut they know it was something.
Yeah again I commend them for coming forward because the more
we talked about this, the better.
(25:52):
So you think like how many things could be going on out
there and we just wouldn't know.Yep.
Or they just go unseen by anyone.
Literally anyone or maybe some random guy on a street corner?
Yeah, he sees some weird thing flying around.
He's not going to go write a blog about it.
He's not gonna To create a YouTube channel and if he did it
probably wouldn't get noticed. So there's there could be a lot
(26:13):
more being seen than what we're aware of same goes for like
Bigfoot stuff, for whatever. I mean, I was out mushroom
hunting today and they are superhard to see, even right
underneath your feet. And so, you get out into some of
these super remote areas and youcould, I don't know, I don't
know what I think about Bigfoot,but I think it falls into that,
just that percentage breakdown of like, okay, there's this many
(26:36):
sightings is this many people that saw it?
There's Many people within that group that are actually
reputable sources. There's no way they all made it
up. There's no way that their
stories would coincide over hundreds of years in what they
see and what it sounds like the interactions when you get into a
(26:56):
numbers game, it's almost like there has to be something you
know I don't know what it is, exactly could be paranormal
could be Supernatural, could be physical.
National. I don't know but there's
something and that's indisputable like there is
something that people are seeingwhether you're talking UFOs or
(27:18):
Bigfoot or other stuff. Yep, exactly.
Okay. So we're going to do a new
segment of the show where we read a review that you guys
leave for the podcast. So we're reading reviews from
Apple podcast. So if you have apple podcast,
please feel free to leave. Review and we may read it on the
(27:41):
podcast. And yeah, thank you guys so much
for the support. You've been showing.
It's been super helpful and encouraging to see those.
So yeah, we thought it'd be fun to read some of those reviews on
Spotify. Unfortunately, you can't leave a
review except for like a five-star which we really
appreciate. If you haven't done that yet,
please do that again, that helpsthe podcast.
(28:03):
Get seen more, if we deserve it.You know, we're trying to earn
it. We're trying to Earn it.
Yeah, yeah, but no truly, it is pretty awesome.
A lot of people are like, oh, rate and subscribe rate and
subscribe, but if you've never recorded a podcast, sometimes,
it feels like you're just speaking into the void.
So to have interaction like that, not only helps like boost
who gets to see the podcast and all that cool stuff.
(28:25):
But also it's just school. It feels like oh hey, there's
actually real people on the other end of this.
Yeah that are genuinely enjoyingwhat's what's being done and
appreciate the work and are partof the the Andy.
So it's really cool to see beyond just the promotion aspect
of it. Yeah, for sure if you guys want
(28:45):
to help out us and everything, we put into this leaving a
review rating, it if you take a minute to do that we'd really
appreciate that. So yeah, we're going to read a
review every banter episode. This first review comes from,
you know, how I am with names, please forgive me, but the
username is green Melman. Melamine.
(29:08):
It's like one word green melamine green melamine.
I don't know. Anyways, thanks for leaving a
review. She left a five stars and the
title is chilling, but in a fun way, nice, I've been thoroughly
enjoying listening over the pastfew weeks, I like to satisfy
that need for rather spooky stories without feeling truly
(29:32):
Disturbed and this fits that Niche for me.
Still when I'm not in the workout room listening to This
by myself, it keeps me on my toes.
Ha ha ha, although he hit some classic spooky topics hit on by
other podcast he comes on with stories.
I've never heard not to mention,there's something compelling
(29:52):
about stories of Everyday Peoplein Wild situations their stories
you won't really find anywhere else in those cases thank you so
much for the review, green melamine.
Thank you so much for listening.That's that's awesome.
Thanks for leaving that review. So Appreciate it next week.
We'll have a story episode and Ithink you guys are really gonna
(30:12):
like it. I'm excited to share that one
with you, but yeah, Jared you have anything to say before we
sign off. Thanks for listening.
It's been super fun.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Intentionally Disturbing
Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior, current events, and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire. After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist, I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit, quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness. I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit. I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, armed with dark humor and biting wit.