Picture this: a British airline pilot is just doing his job, flying at 17,300ft when suddenly he gets sucked right out of the plane window!
Yeah, you read that right. It's like something out of a nightmare.
Daily Star reported a British Airways flight from Birmingham to Malaga suffered a terrifying incident when two of the cockpit windows shattered due to the wrong bolts being used to secure the windscreen in June 1990.
Captain Tim Lancaster was sucked out of the cockpit window after the glass windowpanes shattered, with a member of the cabin crew only able to hold on to him by his ankles until the plane safely landed.
Cabin crew member Nigel Ogden was in the cockpit at the time and managed to grasp the captain’s legs just before he disappeared completely.
He described Tim’s body as being ‘bent upwards’ and ‘doubled over round the top of the aircraft’, ‘in a U-shape around the windows’.
The force weakened Nigel’s arms and he started to get frostbite. Believing he was going to lose his grip of Tim, a second flight attendant, John Heward, arrived at the scene and managed to grab on to Tim’s belt.
Co-pilot Alistair Atchison took over control of the plane and instructed his colleagues not to let go of Tim.
Alistair engaged in an emergency descent and managed to guide the plane to an altitude where the crew and passengers were able to breathe.
Thank goodness they were able to keep him from certain death, but man, that is some scary stuff.
This is just another reminder that flying can be a risky business, folks.
