Sierra Hotel Blog
On June 24, 1982, British Airways Flight 009 — Speedbird 9 — lost all four engines after flying through an invisible ash plume from Mount Galunggung over the Indian Ocean. The Boeing 747 became a 300-ton glider in the dark, descending toward the sea. Through extraordinary airmanship, Captain Eric Moody and his crew restarted the engines and landed safely in Jakarta. All 262 people on board walked away without a scratch.
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When Space Shuttle Columbia touched down at Edwards AFB on April 14, 1981 after her STS-1 maiden flight, nobody knew how close disaster had come. An overpressure wave from the solid rocket booster had damaged the heat shield and forced the body flap 5° beyond safe limits — a hydraulic rupture would have made controlled descent impossible. Commander John Young later admitted they would have ejected had they known.
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On February 24, 1989, United Airlines Flight 811 suffered a catastrophic cargo door failure at 22,000 feet over the Pacific, tearing a massive hole in the fuselage and ejecting nine passengers into the night. Captain David Cronin safely returned the crippled 747 to Honolulu on two engines, landing at nearly 200 knots. The crew received the Secretary's Award for Heroism.
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On August 31, 1986, a Piper Cherokee without transponder clearance collided with Aeroméxico Flight 498 over Cerritos, California. All 64 aboard the DC-9 and 15 on the ground were killed. The disaster led to mandatory TCAS and Mode C transponder requirements in US airspace.
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