United Airlines Flight 811: explosive decompression

Synopsis

On 24^th February 1989, United Airlines Flight 811, a Boeing 747-122, flying from Honolulu International Airport (Hawaii, USA) to Auckland International Airport (New Zealand), when a cargo door blew open and ripped off part of the right-hand side of the forward fuselage. Nine people were ejected from the aircraft, but the flight crew managed to land back at Honolulu International Airport without any other loss of lives.

The reason for the accident was one of design: the cargo doors in this Boeing opened outwards, a design Boeing knew had had problems before. The cargo doors were held shut by aluminum locking sectors, which have proved too weak to hold the doors (in fact, both Boeing and the FAA had issued directions to change substitute those for steel locking sectors). A short-circuit or malfunction in Flight 811 activated the mechanism that opened the cargo doors furing flight, but the aluminum locking sectors were too weak to prevent the doors from opening.

Aviation crash video

Part 1 of 5

(Video embedded from YouTube on 16 September 2009 —see Cineflix, undated1)

Part 2 of 5

(Video embedded from YouTube on 16 September 2009 —see Cineflix, undated1)

Part 3 of 5

(Video embedded from YouTube on 16 September 2009 —see Cineflix, undated1)

Part 4 of 5

(Video embedded from YouTube on 16 September 2009 —see Cineflix, undated1)

Part 5 of 5

(Video embedded from YouTube on 16 September 2009 —see Cineflix, undated1)

Footnotes

1. Also known as Ripped from the sky.

2. Also aired as Air crash investigation, or Mayday.

References

1. CINEFLIX (undated). Unlocking disaster.¹ Air crash investigations² (Montreal, Canada), undated. Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 retrieved from YouTube on 16 September 2009.

Want to know more

Wikipedia - United Airlines Flight 811

This page in Wikipedia offers more detailed information about the occurrence.

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Contributors to this page

Authors / Editors

JDPerezgonzalez