When explosive decompression occurred in the cockpit of a passenger flight and the pilot was sucked out the windscreen, miraculously all 81 passengers and six crew survived.
As British Airways flight 5390 left Birmingham Airport, England, on June 10, 1990, the frightening ordeal took place.
The captain, Tim Lancaster, was blown partially out of the BAC One-Eleven 528FL heading for Malaga Airport, Spain, when an improperly installed windscreen panel separated from its frame while flying over Didcot, Oxfordshire.
The plane was flying at an altitude of 17,300 at the time.
After twenty minutes with the captain halfway through the window, the first officer, Alastair Atchison, landed at Southampton Airport.
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Flight attendant Nigel Ogden recalled in a newspaper at the time: “He had been sucked out of his seatbelt and all I could see were his legs. I jumped over the control column and grabbed him around his waist to avoid him going out completely.
“Everything was being sucked out of the aircraft: even an oxygen bottle that had been bolted down went flying and nearly knocked my head off. I was holding on for grim death but I could feel myself being sucked out, too. [Steward] John [Heward] rushed in behind me and saw me disappearing, so he grabbed my trouser belt to stop me slipping further, then wrapped the captain’s shoulder strap around me. Luckily, Alistair [Atchison], the co-pilot, was still wearing his safety harness from take-off, otherwise, he would have gone, too.”
Amazingly, Lancaster was exposed to the equivalent of 345 mph winds and -17c temperatures.
Ogden continued: “I was still holding on to Tim but the pressure made him weigh the equivalent of 500 pounds [about 200 kilograms]. It was a good thing I’d had so much training at rugby tackles, but my arms were getting colder and colder and I could feel them being pulled out of their sockets.
“I couldn’t hold on any more, so [steward] Simon [Rogers] strapped himself into the third pilot’s seat and hooked Tim’s feet over the back of the captain’s seat and held on to his ankles. One of the others said: “We’re going to have to let him go.” I said: “I’ll never do that.” I knew I wouldn’t be able to face his family, handing them a matchbox and saying: “This is what is left of your husband.” If we’d let go of his body, it might have got jammed in a wing or the engines.
“I left Simon hanging on to Tim and staggered back into the main cabin. For a moment, I just sat totally exhausted in a jump seat, my head in my hands.”
Atchison put on his oxygen mask and landed the plane 22 minutes later, saving everyone on board, including Lancaster.
"‘The paramedics had Tim in the cockpit on a stretcher and I went in to see him.
"He was lying there, covered in blood, but to my amazement, I heard him say: 'I want to eat.' I just exclaimed: 'Typical bloody pilot.' Luckily, he’d been in a coma throughout the ordeal, his body had just shut down. I went out onto the front steps and shouted at the others 'He’s alive!' and then I cried my eyes out,” Ogden concluded.
As a result of the extreme cold, Lancaster suffered frostbite and fractures. Ogden also suffered frostbite and had a dislocated shoulder.
Five months later Lancaster returned to flying and joined Easyjet as a pilot.
However, as a result of post-traumatic stress, Ogden took early retirement in 2001 on health grounds and was hired to work at a Salvation Army hospital as a night watchman.
According to a report published in 1992, a BA engineer working under pressure fitted the windscreen with the wrong bolts.
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