Details
The aircraft, Queen Liliuokalani (registration number N73711, named after Liliuokalani), took off from Hilo International Airport (PHTO) at 13:25 HST on 28 April 1988, bound for Honolulu (PHNL). There were 90 passengers and five crew members on board. No unusual occurrences were reported during the take-off and climb.
Around 13:48, as the aircraft reached its normal flight altitude of 24,000 feet (7,300 m) about 23 nautical miles (43 km) south-southeast of Kahului, a small section on the left side of the roof ruptured. The resulting explosive decompression tore off a 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.
First officer Mimi Tompkins was flying the plane at the time of the accident. After discovering the damage, Captain Robert Schornstheimer took over and steered the plane to the closest airport at Maui island. 13 minutes later, the crew performed an emergency landing on Kahului Airport's runway 2. Upon landing, the crew deployed the aircraft's emergency evacuation slides and evacuated passengers from the aircraft quickly. Tompkins assisted passengers down the evacuation slide. In all, 65 people were reported injured, eight seriously. At the time, Maui had no plan for a disaster of this type. The injured were taken to the hospital by the tour vans from Akamai Tours (now defunct) driven by office personnel and mechanics, since the island only had a couple of ambulances. Air traffic control radioed Akamai and requested as many of their 15 passenger vans as they could spare to go to the airport (less than a mile away) to transport the injured. Two of the Akamai drivers were former medics and established a triage on the runway. The aircraft was a write-off.
Read more about this topic: Aloha Airlines Flight 243
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