A Captain Was Sucked Out of the Cockpit Window Over 84 Wrong Screws

A British Airways jet was climbing out of Birmingham on a Sunday morning in June 1990 when the captain's windscreen blew off at 17,300 feet. The captain went out with it, head first, and spent the next 20 minutes bent over the nose of the aircraft at 300 mph while his crew held on to his legs. He lived. So did everyone else. This is British Airways Flight 5390, June 10, 1990: a BAC One-Eleven from Birmingham to Málaga with 87 people on board. The windscreen had been replaced 27 hours earlier by a shift maintenance manager working alone at night who picked the bolts by eye. 84 of the 90 were the wrong diameter (about 0.66 mm too thin) and the other 6 were too short. The window was fitted from the outside, so cabin pressure pushed it out. Flight attendant Nigel Ogden grabbed Captain Tim Lancaster by the belt; First Officer Alastair Aitchison, unable to hear ATC over the roar, put the One-Eleven down at Southampton 22 minutes later. Lancaster was back flying within five months and later flew for easyJet until 2008. The AAIB report's recommendation that the manager wear his glasses for close work remains one of aviation's great understatements. Sources: UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch, Aircraft Accident Report 1/92 (BAC One-Eleven G-BJRT, 10 June 1990); Wikipedia, "British Airways Flight 5390"; Nigel Ogden's first-person account (Sydney Morning Herald, 2005). Timings, bolt counts and injuries follow the AAIB report as summarised by those sources. Music: "Lightless Dawn" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 — http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Real photos (Wikimedia Commons / geograph.org.uk), shown with the "REAL PHOTO" tag: G-BJRT BAC1-11 B.A. BHX 15-07-89 (25566356266) (Rob Hodgkins, CC BY-SA 2.0); BA 5390 Screw comparison (Air Accidents Investigation Branch, Department for Transport, UK, OGL 3); BAC 111-510ED One-Eleven, British Airways AN1400121 (Michel Gilliand, GFDL 1.2); British Aircraft Corporation BAC 1-11 Series 539GL, British Airways JP5890446 (Pedro Aragão, CC BY-SA 3.0); BAC 111-... One-Eleven, British Airways AN0066528 (Konstantin von Wedelstaedt, GFDL 1.2); BAC 111-510ED One-Eleven, British Airways AN1639563 (Andy Kennaugh, GFDL 1.2); BAC 111-510ED One-Eleven, British Airways AN2202776 (Steve Fitzgerald, GFDL 1.2); BAC 111-501EX One-Eleven, British Airways AN0134591 (Konstantin von Wedelstaedt, GFDL 1.2); BAC 111-510ED One-Eleven, British Airways AN1063884 (Tim Rees, GFDL 1.2); BIRMINGHAM 30 JAN 1987 BRITISH AIRWAYS BAC 1-11-400 G-AXOX (9555772850) (simon butler from halesowen, uk, CC BY 2.0); BA BAC 1-11-500 G-AVMU at NCL (15637355814) (G B_NZ, CC BY-SA 2.0); G-AVMU BAC 1-11 500 British Airways Duxford 18.5.15 (54439550056) (Colin Cooke Photo, CC BY-SA 2.0); Cockpit of BAC One-Eleven 510ED ‘G-AVMO’ (39753660142) (Alan Wilson from Stilton, Peterborough, Cambs, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0); BAC 111 Cockpit (40476452445) (Mike McBey, CC BY 2.0); BAC One-Eleven cockpit (allen watkin from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0); Museum of Flight BAC 111-510ED One-Eleven cockpit (Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 3.0); G-DAJC B757 Monarch BHX 21-09-90 (33586021395) (Rob Hodgkins, CC BY-SA 2.0); Lining Up for Take-Off - Southampton Airport Runway 02 - geograph.org.uk - 5806807 (Richard Cooke, CC BY-SA 2.0); Southampton Airport apron (Bacon Noodles, Public domain); Didcot Power Station, aerial 2017 (2) - geograph.org.uk - 5437107 (Chris, CC BY-SA 2.0); Cooling towers at Didcot power station - geograph.org.uk - 6129309 (David Howard, CC BY-SA 2.0); Harvested Field, Cholsey - geograph.org.uk - 3101205 (Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0); Malaga (AGP - LEMG) AN1863602 (Javier Bravo Muñoz, GFDL 1.2); Cabopino beach, Costa del Sol, Spain 2005 13 (Konstantin, CC BY-SA 3.0); 18-04-13-Schrauben-Schlüssel RRK3436 (Ralf Roletschek, GFDL 1.2); Drehmomentschraubendreher mit Torxbit P4170099 (Johann H. Addicks - addicks@gmx.net, GFDL 1.2); Shedding light on maintainers at night 150210-F-LR006-057 (Senior Airman Dennis Sloan, Public domain); Reading Glasses & Blueprints (8096939321) (Simon Q from United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0); Reading-Glasses (Evan-Amos, Public domain); Air traffic controllers 120904-F-OS776-061 (Airman 1st Class Christopher Tam, Public domain); Airport Fire Engine (6114407534) (Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK, CC BY 2.0); Fire engine at London Luton Airport - geograph.org.uk - 3018012 (M J Richardson, CC BY-SA 2.0); 316fb - EasyJet Boeing 737-300; G-IGOU@LTN;06.09.2004 (8210848940) (Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0); AAIB Entrance (Gaius Cornelius, CC BY-SA 3.0). Note: scenes marked "AI RECONSTRUCTION" are AI-generated illustrations of the events, not real photographs. No real person is depicted. #BA5390 #BritishAirways #aviation #airdisaster #CockpitDocs More from us: Backfire Docs    / @backfiredocs   · Meltdown Docs    / @meltdowndocs   · Root Cause Docs    / @rootcause_docs