Flights Gone Wrong

Real stories. Deeper understanding.

All events

Every event we cover, by year.

Filters1

Filter events

Aircraft
Boeing 737 Classic
Aircraft
Country
All countries
Country
Cause
All causes
Cause
Clear filters

2 events

  1. Photo: Mila Daniel / CC BY-SA 4.0

    Helios Airways Flight 522

    Hypoxia on a flight to Athens

    Open event

    Helios Airways Flight 522, a Boeing 737-300 flying from Larnaca to Athens and Prague on 14 August 2005, never pressurised because a selector had been left in manual after overnight maintenance, and the pilots were overcome by hypoxia as the aircraft climbed on autopilot. It flew on unresponsive for almost three hours, circling near Athens until its fuel ran out, and crashed into hills near Grammatiko, killing all 121 people on board.

    2 video perspectives

  2. Photo: Bill Abbott / CC BY-SA 2.0

    Aloha Airlines Flight 243

    A fuselage failure over Hawaii

    Open event

    On 28 April 1988 about 18 feet of the upper fuselage of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 tore away at 24,000 feet between Hilo and Honolulu, after fatigue cracks along a lap joint linked up. The crew landed at Kahului on Maui 13 minutes later, and 94 of the 95 people on board survived, but flight attendant Clarabelle "C.B." Lansing was swept out of the aircraft and never found.

    2 video perspectives