Plane Was Open ‘Like a Convertible’ : Structural Failure Hinted in Jet Blast

A structural failure in the fuselage of an Aloha Airlines 737 jetliner emerged Friday as a possible cause of the midair blast that sucked a flight attendant from the plane and left terrified passengers flying aboard a craft open to the sky like “a convertible.”

As National Transportation Safety Board members arrived here from Washington to investigate, federal officials said that structural deficiencies on which they were focusing might have caused a sudden drop in cabin pressure explosive enough to blow off the top of the plane’s fuselage.

Six Coast Guard cutters, a C-130 plane and two helicopters scoured the Pacific off Maui, but by late Friday had been unsuccessful in their search for the missing flight attendant, Clarabelle B. Lansing of Honolulu, or any other signs of wreckage from the plane.

“The stewardess had just said, ‘Would you like one more drink?’ She was handing my wife a glass when suddenly she disappeared,” said aerospace engineer Bill Flannigan, who was aboard the plane with his wife, Joy.

‘We’re Wide Open’

“It was like an explosion. But just the sound of rushing air, no bang. All of a sudden, we’re wide open--like riding in a convertible,” Flannigan said.

Joy Flannigan, who suffered facial cuts, was hospitalized in stable condition Friday, her husband said. Bill Flannigan suffered burns on his abdomen and a hand when live electrical wires rained down on him as the jetliner’s ceiling ripped away.

Dr. Charles Mitchell, director of the Maui Memorial Hospital’s emergency room, said most of the passengers suffered abrasions, contusions and cuts. Two suffered burns that Mitchell described as “more like a flash burn from a burst of fire.” Overall, Mitchell said, 61 passengers were treated at the hospital after the crippled plane landed.

An Aloha Airlines statement said two passengers remained hospitalized Friday in critical condition, another two were in serious condition and six--among them Joy Flannigan--were in stable condition. Three others were released during the day.

The identities of the passengers were not released by the airline.

The jetliner, with 89 passengers, five crew members and an air traffic controller aboard, was en route from Hilo to Honolulu when a blast shook the plane at 1:45 p.m. Thursday. Pilot Robert Schornstheimer, who was lauded as a hero both by investigating authorities and by passengers, detoured to Kahului after the incident and landed the plane safely after a harrowing 13-minute flight.

One man said the landing was “just like riding in a Cadillac.”

Passengers recovering from injuries and shock described the drama aboard Aloha Airlines Flight 243, from the sudden decompression and shattering fury of debris to the limping ride to Kahului Airport.

Little Panic

They said that aside from the first moments of fright, there was little panic aboard the 737. As the airline cabin lost pressure, oxygen masks were flung from what remained of the ceiling and were blown away by the rushing winds. Debris and spatters of blood filled the cabin, passengers said.

After Lansing vanished, another flight attendant who, like Lansing, had not been secured by a seat belt, struggled to stay inside the plane and was saved by passengers.

“One stewardess was crawling down the aisle,” said Honolulu salesman Dan Dennin, 31. “She almost got sucked out. A couple of passengers in the aisle seats were holding on to her. Everyone was cool.”

After the cabin’s ceiling flew off, passengers screamed briefly, Dennin said, but he called the reaction “very brief.”

“The rest of the plane was intact, and we did not go into any unusual attitudes or anything like that. I think that people realized the plane was still flying and they quickly went about the business of doing whatever they could to save their lives.”

Don Life Jackets

Passengers helped each other don life jackets and some tucked their heads between their legs in preparation for a landing. Several said that after the first intimations that they might survive the explosion, they thought the plane would land in the water.

“I looked around and saw there was no more airplane around me,” said passenger David Jackson, interviewed by KCBS radio. “This lady sitting next to me . . . there was really nothing between her and the deep blue sea. She clung to me and I clung to her.”

After the initial concussion, Bill Flannigan turned to find his wife injured.

“My wife was lying there in a pool of blood. There was wind, lots of wind, and I thought the seats would tear loose. She was crying. I told her that I loved her, that I loved her and I always had loved her and she told me that she loved me too. You see, we thought it was all over,” said Flannigan, who had traveled to Hawaii with his wife to celebrate their 31st wedding anniversary.

‘Kept Hanging On’

“I hung on to her as hard as I could and she hung on to me. It seemed to take forever while he brought the plane down. And we just kept hanging on for dear life.”

On Friday, the plane, which bears the name Queen Liliuokalani painted beneath the cockpit window, was cordoned off on the runway where it came to a stop the day before. Missing was the top of the fuselage from the bulkhead behind the cockpit to the leading edge of the wing, almost a third of the length of the plane. On the sides, the metal skin was broken off to below-window level.

A nine-member “go team” of NTSB inspectors arrived at the airport Friday afternoon and made their first cursory inspection of the plane. The team, headed by Joseph T. Nall, a lawyer/pilot who is one of the five members of the National Transportation Safety Board, is expected to remain at the scene for a week to 10 days.

Although authorities had not ruled out completely the possibility that a bomb caused the plane’s rift, an FBI spokesman in Honolulu said a preliminary investigation turned up no evidence that a bomb had been detonated aboard the plane. FBI agents who had been dispatched to search for evidence of a bomb were recalled to Honolulu.

Whether the plane landed with one engine on fire, as initial reports had indicated, is still unclear, but there was no obvious charring of either engine or of the fuselage.

Fuselage Had Cracked

FBI spokesman Robert Heafner refused to comment on reports that investigators were keying on the possibility of structural failure. But other federal sources cited the possibility, and records indicated that over the past five years, the fuselage of the Aloha plane has cracked and corroded eight times seriously enough to warrant reporting to the FAA.

Schornstheimer, the pilot, and first officer Mimi Tomkins brought the plane into Kahului Airport, some 25 miles from the site of the explosion, with what observers and experts declared was an extraordinary effort.

On the ground, observers stared in wonder as the plane landed. Steven Songstad, a Kahului lawyer, was on his way to catch a plane when he saw the shattered 737 arrive.

“I was just pulling into the lot at the airport when I looked up and saw it coming in,” he said. “At first I thought it was just a lousy paint job. And then I realized it was a huge gaping hole. I almost ran through the (parking lot) gate. I didn’t see any flame or smoke. The plane came in clean.”

As it sat on the tarmac, the jet looked as if a section had been cut out of its fuselage with a chain saw from 1 1/2 to 2 feet behind the entry door to just in front of the wing. The cut had no ragged edges. There was no sign of flame or smoke.

“I give credit to the pilot,” said John Lopez, 40, a Hilo welder aboard the craft. “He brought the plane down so smoothly. It was just like riding in a Cadillac.”

Flannigan said passengers were briefly trapped inside the plane after its landing because the buckled floor prevented exit doors from opening.

“I stood up and I got the crank up on the door--the floor was bent up so it wouldn’t open,” he said. “But a young fellow jumped up and down on the floor and we got the door open. Everybody was in shock.”

Neither of the pilots was available for comment, but Schornstheimer’s father said his son sounded calm when he called after the landing.

“He says it was just something else. All of a sudden there was this noise, and the plane’s flying funny and there’s a big drag on it, so he immediately decided to change the flight plan to land at the Maui airport, which was closest, and he was able to get it in,” the father, also named Robert, told the Associated Press in an interview from his Marietta, Ohio, home.

Calm Under Pressure

“He’s pretty calm under pressure,” the father said. “He said he was calm and did what needed to be done, just like any other pilot would have.”

Aloha Airlines President A. Maurice Myers praised the pilots’ “extraordinary performance.”

“We are pleased that there is improvement among our injured passengers and we are doing everything we can to assist their families and friends,” Myers said in a statement. Those not hospitalized were either flown to their homes or given accommodations, the statement said.

Hospital officials said the effort to get the passengers off the plane and into ambulances proceeded smoothly.

“The people were unbelievably calm,” said Mitchell, the hospital’s emergency room director. He compared the scene to those he witnessed while working with refugees in Southeast Asia.

“They’d get out of the van--the ambulatory ones--and just stand there. They were in psychological shock. . . . I think they couldn’t believe they were still alive.”

Indeed, one passenger, David Jackson, found reason to shout as he was wheeled down a hospital corridor Thursday night.

“I’m alive,” he crowed. “I’m alive.”

Staff writer Cathleen Decker in Los Angeles contributed to this story.