The captain miraculously escaped death after being sucked out of the plane

British Airways Flight 5390 32 years ago was one of the rarest survival events in the history of commercial aviation.

On a beautiful morning of June 10, 1990, BAC aircraft 1–11–500 with flight number 5390 departed from Birmingham bound for Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport (Spain) as usual. . The aircraft has been received by British Airways since 1988 and is always maintained regularly. On that flight, there were a total of 81 people including 4 flight attendants and 2 pilots.

Captain Timothy Lancaster (in bed) recovers at Southampton hospital, flanked by crew members (from left to right): Alistair Atchison, John Howard, Nigel Ogden, Susan Prince and Simon Rogers.

The flight's chief pilot was Captain Tim Lancaster, who was 42 years old at the time and had more than 11,000 hours of flying experience. The co-pilot is Alastair Atchison (39 years old) with 7,500 flight hours.

Before each flight, the technical department will check twice. According to the report, the aircraft did not experience any technical problems, all parameters were normal.

The flight took off at 8.33am without any notice from Birmingham airport. The UK Weather Service said the level of turbulence in the air was normal. As the plane moved over the town of Didcot, Oxfordshire at an altitude of 5,300 meters, the two pilots began to loosen their thigh and shoulder seat belts.

About 30 minutes after takeoff, a loud explosion shook the cockpit. Two windshields in the cockpit broke, and Captain Tim Lancaster was sucked out. Fortunately, male flight attendant Nigel Ogden was present and grabbed Captain Lancaster's ankle. Since the plane was traveling at such high speed and low pressure at such an altitude, pulling the captain back into the cockpit was an impossibility.

"I turned around and saw the windshield was gone, Tim was sucked out of the seat. I could only see his legs. I jumped over with the remote, holding on to Tim's legs. His shirt was all blown up and his back was. It was bent, glued to the top of the plane. Everything seemed to be sucked out. Even an oxygen tank almost fell on my head," said flight attendant Ogden.

At that time, not only the life of Captain Lancaster was "a thousand pounds hanging by a hair", but the fate of all people on the plane was also in danger. If the male flight attendant Ogden does not grab the captain, there is a high risk that the pilot will be sucked into the plane's engine and cause a huge explosion, resulting in the plane crashing into the ground and all of them. die.

While the flight attendants held the captain, co-pilot Atchison was in charge of flight control. He decided to lower the travel altitude and find a way to land the plane as quickly as possible. He was directed by Air Traffic Control to Southampton Airport. While the co-pilot spoke to air traffic control at Southampton Airport, Ogden began to lose strength. Another flight attendant, Simon Rogers, realized Ogden couldn't hold the captain for another 15 minutes until the plane landed, so they used extra seat belts to tie the captain's legs to the seat.

During 20 minutes of hovering outside the cockpit, captain Lancaster had to deal with strong winds of 630 km/h and a temperature of -17 degrees Celsius. His shirt was torn.

Despite concerns that the runway at Southampton might be too short for a BAC 1-11, the plane's inability to release fuel to reduce weight before landing. Co-pilot Atchison had no other choice. The flight landed safely at Southampton airport.

When the plane landed safely, Lancaster was brought back to the cockpit. Emergency services are available at the airport. Lancaster survived partial frostbite, bruising, shock, and fractures in her arms, hands, and wrists. Flight attendant Nigel Ogden was the only one seriously injured when he suffered frostbite and dislocated his shoulder.

Doctors said that if not landing soon or the co-pilot continued to control the plane at an altitude of 5,000 meters, Lancaster could have died from lack of oxygen.

Investigators photographed the scene of a pressurized explosion in the cockpit of a BAC 1-11–500.

Investigators quickly got on board to investigate this dangerous accident. Investigators found the cockpit window shards and parts of the latch in the village of Cholsey, Oxfordshire, 9km from Didcot.

Investigators discovered that the bolts used to secure the windshield were too short, only a few centimeters long. They were installed the night before the incident, when engineers replaced the windshield during maintenance.

The unqualified bolt lengths mean that they cannot withstand the difference in air pressure between the cockpit and the outside environment when flying at 5,000 m. This difference causes a pressure explosion and causes the window to break. The investigation exposed deficiencies at British Airways' maintenance facility in Birmingham, when engineers carelessly finished the process.

First Officer Atchison and flight attendants Susan Gibbins and Nigel Ogden were presented with the Queen's Commendation for their heroic spirit. Atchison also received a Polaris Award in 1992 for his efforts in the crash.

As for the BAC 1-11–500, it continued to operate at British Airways for another 3 years and then transferred to the Romanian airline Jaro International in 1993. After 30 years of service, the aircraft was commissioned. 'retired' in 2001.