Mark2102 From United States of America, joined Nov 2001, 350 posts, RR: 0 Posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 1909 times:
I was watching this airplane miracle show today and saw this story about a United Airlines plane that was going from Hawaii to New Zealand and a big chunk of plane broke off. I missed about 1/2 of the story. I have never heard of this story before and I could not find it on airdisasters.com. Can anybody tell me what happened? What caused that piece of plane to just fall off? I was shocked when I saw that!!
Ual747 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 1799 times:
I believe it had something to do with the forward cargo door giving out. Ripped the side right off the plane. I believe two or three people were lost, several others injured. I still have a newspaper clipping of it.
Boeingmd82 From United States of America, joined Jun 2001, 235 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 1778 times:
That was United's B747-122 N4713U, The cargo door malfunctioned, opened in flight and ripped a 15ft X 13 ft hole out of the fueslage, sucking 9 passengers out and 5 pairs of business class seats. Engines 3 and 4 failed, but the AC returned to Honolulu safely.
Gr8SlvrFlt From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 1583 posts, RR: 16 Reply 3, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 1732 times:
Yes, a faulty forward cargo door mechanism caused the door to open and rip off during climb out of Honolulu on the way to Australia in the middle of the night. The door took a sizeable piece of fuselage with it. I believe two business-class passengers, still in their seats, ended up getting sucked out and causing at least one engine to fail (think about that one). There were many minor injuries from flying debris and some more serious injuries to at least one flight attendant. The crew was preparing for a mid-ocean ditching but miraculously made it back to Honolulu.
AirFranceJFK From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 471 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 1720 times:
I believe this story occured back in 1989, not 1991. It was a United flight from Honolulu to Auckland.
Boeingmd82 From United States of America, joined Jun 2001, 235 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 1715 times:
Yes, that's right, FEB 24, 1989. I think it was flight 811.
HA_DC9 From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 645 posts, RR: 1 Reply 6, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 1699 times:
Does anyone know if the plane is still flying today and with whom? I know for sure that the plane was repaired and returned to service. I remember seeing a show on air safety and it showed a clip of the same plane in United's current colors taxiing to a gate.
Boeing727 From United States of America, joined May 1999, 934 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 1683 times:
UAL Bagsmasher From United States of America, joined Sep 1999, 2130 posts, RR: 11 Reply 8, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 1674 times:
As a result of what happened on Capt. David Cronin's aircraft, UA has implemented a change in the way B747's are dispatched. Before any UA B747 flight leaves, the cargo door circuit breakers are pulled in the electronics bay of the aircraft by the mechanic working the flight. That's why you will always see a ladder positioned under the nose of a B747 just before departure, and just as soon as it reaches its destination gate. The idea is to prevent any electricity from reaching the door actuator mechanism. I am not sure if UA is the only one who does this or not. Since the fault on flight 811 was electrical in nature, this procedure should prevent something like that from ever happening again.
NZ767 From New Zealand, joined Nov 2001, 1620 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 23 hours ago) and read 1597 times:
Yes, apparently it WAS a miracle that the plane made it back to Honolulu safely.
I've heard that they have since simulated this incident on flight simulators and after what happened to that aircraft, there's no way in the world it should have made it back to HNL.
Has anyone heard that story?
The young New Zealander that was killed is from the next suburb over from me about 2 kms away.
Plane was on its way to Auckland, New Zealand, not Australia.
UALPHLCS From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 10, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 23 hours ago) and read 1597 times:
BTW 777 cargo doors have small windows so the ramp rats can make sure the doors are sealed and locked correctly. I was told by a mechanic that this feature was a direct result of that 747 incident.
AKelley728 From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 2101 posts, RR: 6 Reply 12, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 1461 times:
Ual777contrail From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 13, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 1440 times:
the foreward cargo doors blew open.back in the old day united when using the cargo loaders on widebodys you would latch them to the plane by big hooks. those same hooks would also be latched by the door, after so many times of loading and unloading the hooks grew weak, and inflight the door blew open and started to rip throught he plane. i know one of the flight attendents who was on that plane, the story is wild.
Smolt From Japan, joined Nov 1999, 269 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 1382 times:
Is this accident a kind of metal fatigue caused by being an aged aircract? (built in 1970) I had at that time quite much of distrust in safety to several aged 747s for United Airlines (with only 3 upper deck windows), because there was an incredible incident in which 3 out of 4 engines were mulfunctioned final approcach and made an emerency landing to my home airport. I used to advise to avoide UAL to my friends until these fearful old 747s were retired.
Jj From Algeria, joined Jun 2001, 1227 posts, RR: 2 Reply 15, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 1359 times:
There was a problem with the latches of the forward cargo door, no fatigue ( this was the cause of the incident of an Aloha 737 midway between Hilo and Kahului)
Seats 8/9/10/11/12 G and H,and 9f where the ones sacked out.
9dead, 18 injured. Book Air Disaster 3, by Mac Arthur Job, has a realy interesting coverage of this incident.
FrequentFlyKid From United States of America, joined Nov 2001, 1197 posts, RR: 1 Reply 16, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 1345 times:
Smolt -- Maybe it is just me, but I find it hard to understand your post. Also, you are trying to tell me that an aircarft built in 1970 and had a problem in 1989 is aging? Riiiiiiight......
Rindt From Germany, joined May 2000, 930 posts, RR: 15 Reply 17, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 7 hours ago) and read 1285 times:
Speaking of rapid decompression, there was an Aloha 732 that lost 1/3 of the upper fuselage in Apr/88. I have looked at the airdisaster.com and found the info, but I do know there was a movie made on it... so now my question : what was that film called?
Cheers,
-Rob
What other people think of you is none of your business!
UAL Bagsmasher From United States of America, joined Sep 1999, 2130 posts, RR: 11 Reply 18, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 6 hours ago) and read 1262 times:
Miracle Landing is the title. It stars Connie Selleca and Wayne Rogers.
Klaus From Germany, joined Jul 2001, 20845 posts, RR: 55 Reply 19, posted (11 years 2 months 4 weeks 2 hours ago) and read 1215 times:
FrequentFlyKid: Smolt -- Maybe it is just me, but I find it hard to understand your post. Also, you are trying to tell me that an aircarft built in 1970 and had a problem in 1989 is aging? Riiiiiiight......
At 19 years it wasn´t exactly new anymore. And the 30+ years life expectancy of an airliner is always qualified "with excellent maintenance".
We should be grateful that almost all people on board have survived the incident - and that lessons have been learned.
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined Nov 2001, 350 posts, 
From New Zealand, joined Nov 2001, 1620 posts, 
From Singapore, joined Sep 2000, 3423 posts, 
From Japan, joined Nov 1999, 269 posts, 
From Algeria, joined Jun 2001, 1227 posts, 
From Germany, joined May 2000, 930 posts, 
all people on board have survived the incident - and that lessons have been learned.
Printer friendly format 
