Line number 60 (msn 19754), she then became Clipper Belle of the Sea in December 1985 before conversion a freighter for Polar Air in August ’94 – with a new tail number N854FT. Burning jet fuel engulfed the aircraft as it plowed through the swamp. It's been 30 years since United Airlines flight 811's cargo door failed blew off the aircraft while it was nearly 7000 metres in the air. Due to lockdown I haven’t seen Capt. After the Flight 811 incident, United made the decision to repair the aircraft and return it to service. When the wire bundle was removed frayed wires were found. The left main gear failed to deploy, then deployed but wouldn’t lock, on approach to San Francisco on September 1st, 1991; engines failed for various reasons every year or so; and the No.2 left leading edge flap failed to retract during climb on December 17th, 1996, for no detectable reason. Well, a prequel. Flight 811 left Honolulu for Auckland at 3:34 a.m. PST. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. "I was awakened by a low, growling, grinding noise, followed by a bang and a flash," said Lynoor Birrell of Wellington, New Zealand, who was sitting with her husband and 4-year-old daughter in Row 13. Do you mean after the incident? In that accident, the top third of an 18-year-old Boeing 737 tore away as the jet cruised at 24,000 feet on an inter-island hop. United Airlines Flight 811 was an airline flight that experienced a cargo door failure in flight on February 24, 1989, after its stopover at Honolulu International Airport, Hawaii.The resulting decompression blew out several rows of seats, resulting in the deaths of nine passengers. Great history of airframes and people that flew them. I have an interview with one of the repair crew, which I am writing up to publish in the next few weeks. . • Susan Craig, Morristown, New Jersey, • Dr. J. Michael Crawford, Sydney, Australia, • Anthony Fallon, Long Beach, California (No bailing wire or duct tape.). Curt Christensen, a United Airlines flight attendant, is told to report by midnight to work the red-eye leg of Flight 811, Honolulu to Auckland. I hope your memories of her are all happy ones! In June 1989 I was transferred from Okinawa to Hickam AFB, HI. Exactly what happened to #19875 next is a little hazy. I will be in touch at my earliest on how I can share the photos and log book copy. (That SDR, by the way, reported corrosion of fuselage stringers in the aft cargo pit, found “during a major overhaul”. On January 9th, 1997 she was flown to Las Vegas and parked in storage. It had climbed to 19,800 feet approximately a half-hour later when passengers heard a cracking sound, … The old girl still flew as well as it did when l first flew it at PAA loved that plane never let me down. Thanks so much for your additional insights, Stephen. Looking forward also to the book I ordered from John Townes. The floor had collapsed beneath 10 business-class seats. This I will share soon too. "I opened my eyes and saw all the overhead baggage racks in our section were gone, as was the overhead TV movie projectors.". THE MISSING: Here is a list of the nine passengers missing from United Flight 811 as provided by United Airlines: 1. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find the giant Boeing 747 airliner heading for Sydney, Australia, having originated in San Francisco. Flying surface leading edges, fuselage hoops, floor beams, stringers and skin could all be spliced in or replaced. Using his carefully groomed network of political contacts, he still managed to delay the jail time until November 1997. And I wouldn’t be disappointed. Well, scattered to the trade winds is the short answer – a diaspora of reconditioned parts and recycled aluminium. This caused floor damage in the main cabin where the door’s hinge beam was torn away, accompanied by an explosive decompression. I’d also be interested in sharing an excerpt as a post on airscape, if Captain Long is up for it. How Air Dabia flew a 25 year old jumbo for 6 days straight or loaded it with 800+ souls just beggars imagination. ( Log Out /  Then, during the the next A-check inspection on October 29th, the No.2 Left, No.5 Left and No.1 Right entry doors were all found to have cracks in the door beams, emanating from the hinge attachment holes. Scheduled inspections would turn up the usual fatigue cracking and corrosion of various parts – because that’s what scheduled inspections are for. In July 1996 two of his operatives purchased a pair of Bell UH-1 “Huey”s from a Miami broker, and prepared them for shipment to Gambia. Tragic; really tragic …. I’ll bet she had a lot of baling wire and duct tape holding her together. Despite air and sea searches no remains of the nine victims were ever found. Later, the maintenance company pulled out of the airport and left her behind. Another amber alert followed at London Heathrow on June 16th, 1991, due to a No.3 hydraulic system failure; and on July 7th, 1991 the aircraft had to dump fuel and return to Honolulu after the No.4 engine overheated during climb, refused to idle, and had to be shut down by pulling the fire handle. https://maydaytvshow.fandom.com/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_811 The aircraft had to return to the airport and have the panel, the fore-flap and a damaged trailing edge mid-panel replaced before it could return to the air. The fatalities were: Anthony and Barbara Fallon; Harry and Susan Craig; Lee Campbell, Dr. John Crawford, John Swan, Rose Harley and Mary Handley-Desso. So despite the promises of only carrying Hajj pilgrims, and despite landing in a raging storm that still didn’t drown out the sound of nearby gunfire, they loaded 800 passengers onto the 400 seat jumbo and took off. Once again, Boeing’s robust engineering carried #19875 through. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Thanks for your kind comments. The crew were told the Government of Congo would kill the Mailnese if they weren’t rescued. That story at least fits with the name he chose for his airline. A special United flight left Honolulu for New Zealand and Australia on Friday night with 247 passengers from Flight 811. The sad thing was the idiot neighbors who thought we were going to build a studio inside a trashed out junk airliner. Long for a few months. – life. It was not known whether the United jumbo jet had undergone the inspections. New Zealander Lee Campbell was one of nine passengers who were sucked out of the aircraft and killed. Meanwhile, Sissoko had been allowed to leave the US after only one of his four months of house arrest, and was living in mansion in Mali – fighting extradition to Dubai, with all his international assets frozen. By the time the flight ended, the panel was cracked and delaminated right across it’s span-wise width. At 2:16 a.m., as the plane was climbing at 20,000 feet, the pilots told air traffic controllers that they had lost power in the inboard engine on the right wing, the FAA said. These ’emergency overload’ stories seem to have been a part of aviation almost since the airplane first went went to war. Good story. possible that I flew on this Airplane. Two other Air Dabia pilots quit with her. . Certainly since airlift became a practical science. 3 or 4 warning systems on the 24th, despite visible fires coming from both engines.). Georgia was on United Airlines flight 811 from Honolulu to Sydney on February 24, 1989, with her parents Paul and Susan. A new procedure bulletin came out on a weekend while I was in 747 Capt school at DENTK. United Airlines Flight 811 departed Honolulu for Auckland, New Zealand just before 2 in the morning on February 24th, 1989. Friday, he was one. But by now, her luck had well and truly run out. Seems like yesterday. – Jim Bernier. But just how they died probably never will be known. Next, the right wing’s inboard trailing edge panel came loose and separated during takeoff on June 24th, 1994. Was it was still flying? After 72 hours they were given an 8-hour break, then re-boarded #19875 for a flight to Brazzaville in Congo to pick up Mali nationals fleeing the civil war in neighbouring Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo). On its two engines. Presumably she continued to fly Hajj pilgrims between Western Africa and Mecca, along with whatever errands Sissoko’s high-level friends requested, for the next few months. When the aircraft left Honolulu, there were three flight crew, 15 cabin attendants and 337 passengers on board. Pulling that bulletin on your IP must have been EXTREMELY satisfying. There were also numerous evacuations in the early days of WW2, with various tales of overloaded B-24s and C-47s in particular. The aircraft was solid after the repair. • Barbara Fallon, Long Beach, California. The abuse these airplanes take is almost inconceivable — and that’s with an airline which provides the proper maintenance. The honeycomb interior of the wing’s skin was left exposed until C5-FBS landed in Gambia. This could only have been the ongoing repair process, which must have been begun at Honolulu and completed at SFO. I made a copy of it. The plane, powered by its two remaining engines, landed at 2:33 a.m. David Cronin and his crew could bring the flight to a successful landing is testimony to the airframe’s fundamental integrity, as well as their teamwork and skill. I’d be intrigued to hear the long answer though, if anyone can tell me  more details. You need to read earlier comments on the repair. By Deseret News Feb 26, 1989, 12:00am MST. Several other Air Dabia employees would need consular assistance to get out of Africa after quitting, and would suffer local police and military harassment before they could escape. Check out Requiem For An Airliner (1) for a flight aboard N4713U when she was brand new; plus Requiem For An Airliner (2) to learn about her post-accident repair at Honolulu. Every Boeing pilot who has seen our display is amazed at how clean and almost brand new everything is. I flew 712 CK originally at PAA then Polar Air before Kalttia Air if l recall it went in service in 1970 it’s last flight was December 2008. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Apart from the main beam that the cargo door had been hinged to, none of the affected metal was structural. During my years of flying, it’s. So at the end of August 1996 Sissoko was arrested by Interpol in Geneva, Switzerland, to face US federal charges of bribery and violating export regulations. ( Log Out /  As you say, there’s a great story there that deserves to be told. All the seats were removed, which saved some weight, plus the passengers had almost no luggage and were of small stature. Although the number of landings and flight hours it has accumulated places the jetliner squarely in middle age, it was modified to update the upper deck from the original three-window configuration to a 10- window configuration. AirDisaster.com: Eyewitness Report: United Flight 811; AP: Nine People, Including Six Americans, Killed in Air Tragedy; UPI: The victims of Flight 811; TulsaWorld: Flight 811 Victims Died Quickly; New York Times: Aboard Flight 811: Passengers' Routine Dissolves Into Terror; NewstalkZB: Survivor of 1989 United Airlines Flight 811 tells of her ordeal Might have been .80 but it was a fast as I ever flew any jet from the left seat. The aircraft involved, N4713U, was a 1970-vintage Boeing 747-122. A friend, here in Reno, is a retired Flying Tiger Line 747 Captain, Elgen Long. A few minutes in the flight the cargo doors blew out and because of the decompression, nine passengers were immediately sucked out of the plane. My pleasure, Donald. Because of the explosive decompression, the jet's interior looked as if a tornado had struck. Haynes faced five months later in Sioux City, Iowa. Finally, the plane was in mid-flight on June 15th, 1996 when a large crack was noticed on the main upper skin panel of the left wing. Later the same crew would work a solid 6-day stretch carrying Hajj pilgrims, and were only saved from another trip to Brazzaville on May 19th, 1997, when engine problems grounded C5-FBS in Dakar, Senegal. Wires and cables lay exposed. United airlines flight 811 was a regularly scheduled airline flight from los angeles to sydney with intermediate stops at honolulu and aucklandon february 24 1989 the boeing 747 122 serving the flight experienced a cargo door failure in flight … In addition to the dead, 27 people were injured, including four crew members. Cronin landed back at HNL and when the aircraft appeared in the United shop at SFO. Has the intrigue of my favorite, “The Flight of the Phoenix.” Will there be a movie? 2. Thanks for the info l recall PAA bought the A/C from UAL to have a additional Craft A/C with cargo doors. The UAL Maintenance engineers concluded that the nose of the aircraft was close to breaking off the fuselage and the crew reached Honolulu in time. Deputy Medical Examiner Mary Flynn said it was not known whether the fragments were from one or more bodies. Witness World Airways 727 in Viet Nam at the end of the war, with some 300 onboard. Abstract United Airlines Flight 811 left Honolulu bound for Auckland, New Zealand on February 24, 1989. Then one day it was gone! All had been occupied. He spent two months in a Swiss jail cell contemplating extradition then, in late October, agreed to front the US Federal Court in Miami. The old 747 duly departed but, over an hour out of Banjul, a 10m panel separated from the upper surface of the starboard wing and collided with the horizontal stabiliser before falling away. I’ll follow up with you directly. Lee Campbell, Wellington, New Zealand. And I hope they get in touch. I believe the captain out of honolulu was Scotty Devine. I’m pleased to add that I have now published the ‘untold story’ of N4713U’s six-month repair at Hickam AFB, before she was returned to SFO and then revenue service. Fourteen minutes later he made a successful landing despite the damaged flaps, and the aircraft was evacuated. They were fleeing Arab persecution during the 1st Israeli/Arab war. The old girl was broken up in April 2013 at Oscoda, Michigan. Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa gets response from ‘celebrity crush’ Shania Twain, Twin baby girls found at scene of fatal shooting in Pompano Beach, Hospitals filling up, encountering a new kind of coronavirus patient. He said the cost to repair was more than anticipated and scraping the airframe might have been the better decision. But the source of his vast fortune was a mystery. None would get the wages they’d been promised. Intrigued to hear the Long answer though, the crew were told the government about Safety! August 4th, 1970 – but to United Airlines as N4704U aircraft appeared the! 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