Aloha Airlines Flight 243 from Hilo to Honolulu landed at Kahului Airport on April 28, 1988, after its fuselage was torn away during flight.

Aloha Airlines Flight 243 was a scheduled Boeing 737 flight between Hilo and Honolulu in Hawaii, as part of Aloha Airlines island-hopping service.

On April 28, 1988, the flight, (registration number N73711), took off as scheduled with 89 passengers and five crew members on board. As it reached its normal flight altitude of 24,000 feet, a small section on the left side of the roof spontaneously ruptured. The resulting explosive decompression tore off a very large section of the roof, consisting of the entire top half of the aircraft skin extending from just behind the cockpit to the fore-wing area.

Despite the aircraft suffering severe structural deformation, the crew was able to perform an emergency landing at Kahului Airport on Maui.

The chief flight attendant, Clarabell Lansing, was ejected from the plane due to the pressure difference. (It has been speculated that her body temporarily blocked a small hull rupture, causing a fluid hammer within the cabin environment that greatly exacerbated the damage to the roof.) Her body was never recovered. Sixty-five others were injured, eight seriously.

After the accident, a full-scale investigation was launched by the NTSB. It concluded that the accident was caused by metal fatigue and stress fractures. The age of the aircraft became a key issue (the aircraft was 19 years old at the time of the accident and had sustained a remarkable number of takeoff-landing cycles). Consequently, all major United States air carriers decided to retire their oldest aircraft to prevent a recurrence. Also, aircraft now recieve additional maintainence checks as they age.

The made for TV movie Miracle Landing is based on this incident.

External links

• Excerpts from the NTSB Accident Report on Aloha Airlines Flt. 243
• IMDB page for Miracle Landing
• Review of Miracle Landing