Boeing 747 Breaks Up Just After Takeoff | Falling Apart Over Hawaii (With Real Audio)

If I remember correctly the NTSB & FAA did not advise Boeing to make the changes to the cargo door design willingly. I suspect that a lot of grift was going on. It took constant lobbying, many years, and thousands of hours of research by one of one of the passengers parents (Kevin & Susan Campbell) to get them to make that change. They are the ones that found the design flaw and refused to be silenced until they were victorious and forced everyone to make changes to the door design. That young man's parents were New Zealanders, he was 24 years old and his name was Lee Campbell. He was Kevin and Susan's only child and they did this in tribute to his memory and also so that future passengers wouldn't perish as their son did. They dropped everything and came to the US to accomplish that amazing feat.

He ended his career like a BOSS! Well done to the Captain and the entire flight crew. I'm so sorry about the passengers who died.

The calmness in those pilot's voices under emergency always amaze me.

Thank God for that Captain and his crew. The Captain sounded so calm under such a stressful and dire situation. He was obviously confident in his skills and knew exactly what to do.

Pilots sounded very calm and cool while handling such an emergency. That's how it should be. Shows how confident they were with their flying skills

Over 350 people evacuated in less than 45 seconds? Hats off to the flight attendants, their training, and keeping cool under very stressful situation.

I've flown with Captain Cronin, he is an epic aviator. Despite his vast experience he remains humble. I will never forget the lasting example he made upon me (an upcoming young 28yr old Captain) during our short interactions in his post retirement life in the pt135/91 world flying King Airs.

Hard to imagine how anyone can stay focussed under that sort of pressure. Captain and crew were amazing.

I was fully expecting for this to be a tragedy. In many ways, it was, but my god those pilots are true heroes!!!

I remember when this happened. The crew did an extraordinary job to get the jumbo back to the airport as safely as possible. The pilot was on Ted Coppell’s Nightline and the pilot didn’t consider himself to be a hero, said he and his fellow crew mates were just doing what they were trained to do.

Wow! 45 seconds. That tells me that no one panicked and followed directions. Hats off to the crew. The nine that perished didn't even have a chance💔

They evacuated a full 747 in 45 seconds!? Flight crew, even hurt and terrified, kicked ass in that one

The experience and professionalism of the Captain, F/O and flight crew is what saved this from a total disaster. Well done!

Wow! I think it goes without saying not only the skill of the Captain, but his massive experience saved the day. What a thing to happen just two flights from retiring. All credit to the FO & Engineer of course, and I'm so pleased their skill was recognised with an honour. A sad loss of life, but it could so easily have been everyone on board.

My father worked for United and was one of the primary investigators. He was going to announce that all those particular 747s had the same design flaw. It would have immediately grounded them all. He was fired instantly and guards escorted him off the premises after having worked there with an excellent record for nearly 23 years.

Amazing save on the part of the crew. And hats off to the passengers that saved one who was almost sucked out of the cabin, too.

The calmness displayed by the flight crew is astonishing.

There are many more complete reports about this accident. One report, I believe, described how the Captain made a slower emergency decent than procedures called for in the case of decompression in order to nurse his altitude and make it back to Honolulu on two engines with all that extra drag. Speaks to the Captain's experience.

I was a member of the search and rescue team. We spent a couple of days at sea doing search patterns looking for the people who were sucked out of the plane.

Rest in peace to all of them who lost their lives that day. And to the whole crew they did a great job at staying calm as possible under a very dangerous matter . True heroes to all involved saving the lives of those that were still alive