Aloha Jetliner’s Damage Greater Than Suspected

KAHULUI, Hawaii â€”  Damage to the crippled Aloha Airlines jetliner that landed here after a large section of its upper fuselage ripped away was even greater than originally thought, a federal official disclosed this weekend.

Joseph T. Nall, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said his investigators have found that, besides the tearing away of the upper two-thirds of an 18-foot section of the fuselage, seven of the remaining structural floor members--and one of the control cables--were broken in the lower part of the plane.

In addition, one of the plane’s two engines failed, complicating the pilots’ efforts to land the crippled aircraft here on the island of Maui.

“Few aircraft with damage that extensive have ever landed safely,� Nall told reporters at a press conference here Saturday night.

Although the cause of the explosive decompression that ripped away the top of the jetliner’s fuselage has yet to be determined, Nall has said that the investigation is focusing on the possibility of metal fatigue.

He said the Boeing 737-200 had logged 89,672 flights in its 19 years of service with the airline.

During each of those flights, the plane was pressurized and depressurized. This process puts some strain on the hull, because of the difference between the relatively high pressure inside the plane and the relatively low pressure outside at normal cruising altitudes.

Heard ‘Whooshing Sound’

Flight 243 was at an altitude of 24,000 feet and a speed of 328 m.p.h. en route from Hilo on the island of Hawaii to Honolulu, on Oahu, Thursday afternoon when pilot Robert Schornstheimer and co-pilot Mimi Tompkins heard a “whooshing sound,� Nall said.

Nall told reporters that Schornstheimer and Tompkins, who were interviewed Saturday by NTSB investigators, said that when they looked back through the gaping cockpit doorway, “all they could see behind them was daylight. It became very apparent they were flying an aircraft that was severely crippled.�

Officials have said that a flight attendant, Clarabelle Lansing, 37, apparently was flung from the torn fuselage and is presumed dead. Her body has not been recovered, despite an extensive search of the Pacific.

Of the 94 others aboard the aircraft, 61 were injured, most of them by flying debris. Seven remained hospitalized at Maui Memorial Hospital on Sunday--three in serious condition, two in satisfactory condition and one listed as “stable.�

Used Hand Signals

The pilot and co-pilot said that, after the fuselage ripped open, the noise from the rushing air was so great that they had to communicate through hand signals.

Schornstheimer said he took over the controls from Tompkins, who was flying the plane when the decompression occurred.

Both pilots donned oxygen masks for what they described as a “bouncy� and “unstable� 15-minute descent to the nearest airfield--the commercial airport here at Kahului.

The cockpit crew noted during the descent that one of the plane’s two engines had failed. Efforts to restart it were unsuccessful. What caused the engine to quit has not yet been determined, officials said.

How the plane managed to fly in such a damaged condition is still the subject of conjecture, Nall said Sunday.

“Engineers haven’t assessed the aerodynamics because no one has ever test-flown a plane in this configuration,� he said.

Landed Faster Than Usual

Schornstheimer said that he landed the plane at 195 m.p.h., about 40 m.p.h. faster than usual, because of severe stability problems encountered when he tried dropping to a lower speed.

He described the touchdown as “very soft.�

Broken in Middle

Engineering experts who studied the aircraft over the weekend said that the seven floor cross-members that cracked under the area where the upper fuselage blew away were broken in the middle.

“Five were fractured all the way through and two nearly through,� Nall said.

The cross-members--each about 8 inches thick and 10 feet long--are spaced at about 2-foot intervals down the length of the 100-foot-long aircraft.

Nall said one of several control cables that passed through holes in the cross-members was severed. It was not immediately determined to which of the plane’s control surfaces the severed cable led.

No Evidence of Fire

Despite the fact that several of the passengers suffered burns, Nall said inspection of the plane’s interior thus far has revealed no evidence of fire, such as scorching or charring.

One passenger who suffered burns said he thought they came from arcing electrical cables severed in the blowout.

Search teams continued to check land under the plane’s descent path Sunday, looking for debris that might have fallen from the crippled jetliner.

Nall said that, while a few pieces of metal had been found, “they were small enough to fit into a small plastic bag� and there is no clear evidence yet that they fell from Flight 243.

Most of the larger chunks of fuselage torn from the plane are believed to have fallen into the sea. Thus far, there has been no attempt to locate and retrieve them.

Nall said Sunday that experts in Washington are having some difficulty picking up conversations from the plane’s “black box� cockpit voice recorder, because of the noise from the wind.

He said investigators are continuing to check luggage and other personal items they removed from the plane Saturday afternoon. Among those items, he said, were some refrigerated fish and a stack of bank notes.

“The owners were beginning to get concerned,� Nall said.