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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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 March 27, 1977, a KLM Boeing 747 took off without clearance and collided with a Pan Am 747 still on the runway at Tenerife. 583 people were killed in the deadliest accident in aviation history.
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