00:00One moment, the captain was in his seat. The next, his head and chest were outside a passenger jet
00:06more than 17,000 feet above England. A flight attendant grabbed him as the aircraft lurched
00:12downward. They could not pull him back through the missing window. Then the captain slipped
00:17farther out, and the man holding him felt his arms giving out. But before we start,
00:22smash the like button and make sure to subscribe if you haven't, and hit that notification bell
00:27so that you won't miss any new stories. On the morning of June 10, 1990, British Airways flight
00:345390 departed Birmingham for Malaga, Spain. 81 passengers had boarded the aircraft, expecting
00:41a journey that would end beneath the Spanish sun. Six crew members were responsible for getting them
00:46there. The weather offered little reason for concern. Inside the cabin, the flight attendants
00:52prepared to serve food and drinks as the aircraft climbed away from the airport. Everything about
00:57the morning suggested another ordinary flight. The emergency began just 13 minutes after takeoff.
01:04Captain Tim Lancaster had spent thousands of hours in the air. Beside him was First Officer Alastair
01:10Acheson, another experienced pilot. Acheson handled the takeoff before passing control to Lancaster
01:16during the climb. Once established in the ascent, both men released their shoulder harnesses,
01:22and Lancaster loosened his lap belt. Ahead lay the familiar work of taking their passengers across
01:27Europe. The aircraft continued upward, passing through 17,300 feet. Then a tremendous bang tore
01:35through the cockpit. In the instant that followed, the space directly in front of Lancaster opened to
01:40the sky. The left windscreen had separated from the aircraft. Air rushed out, and condensation
01:46briefly filled the interior with mist. Lancaster was pulled forward and partly through the opening.
01:52His upper body was outside, exposed to the rushing air, while his legs remained caught inside the
01:57cockpit. Acheson suddenly faced an emergency, with his captain beyond his reach. The aircraft lurched,
02:04its controls disturbed during Lancaster's movement through the window. The autopilot disconnected.
02:10Before anyone could understand the full extent of what had happened,
02:13the aircraft needed someone to take control. Flight attendant Nigel Ogden was close to the
02:19cockpit when the window failed. He rushed forward and caught Lancaster around the waist.
02:24The captain's legs were still lodged among the seat and cockpit fittings, but Nigel could not
02:29rely on them remaining there. He held on, while the air roared through the opening above him.
02:35This was a colleague he had been working alongside only moments earlier. Now, keeping hold of him
02:41demanded everything Nigel had. Behind them, another obstacle lay across the cockpit. The pressure
02:47change had forced the door inward, leaving debris over the radio and navigation console.
02:53John Heward, the senior cabin crew member, cleared the door debris so the pilot's workspace could be used.
03:00Acheson concentrated on recovering control. His captain could no longer help him, and the noise made even
03:06simple communication difficult. He had to steady the aircraft, bring it lower, and establish contact with
03:12air traffic control. Meanwhile, the people beside him had to keep Lancaster from slipping away. Each task
03:20depended on the others. The crew could hold the captain for only so long, and reaching an airport would mean
03:25little if they lost him before touchdown. Acheson regained control and began a rapid descent.
03:31Reaching lower altitude was urgent after the loss of cabin pressure. He re-engaged the autopilot once the
03:38aircraft was under control and transmitted a distress call. Somewhere on the ground, a controller received it and
03:44answered, but inside the damaged cockpit, rushing air swallowed the reply. Acheson had reached someone who could help,
03:51yet he could not properly hear that help coming back. With the aircraft descending and his captain still outside,
03:57he continued trying to establish communication while managing the flight. In the passenger cabin,
04:04the attendants directed people to fasten their seatbelts and reassured them. Their work continued while the
04:10struggle unfolded at the front of the aircraft. Passengers depended on them for instructions they
04:15could understand through the confusion. Keeping the cabin orderly gave Acheson room to concentrate on
04:21flying and the others room to help Lancaster. The same crew, who had been preparing refreshments,
04:27were now dealing with an emergency that demanded every available pair of hands. There was no pause
04:33in which to gather themselves and begin again. John returned to assist Nigel. Together, they tried to
04:39pull Lancaster back through the window. Bringing him inside would have changed everything. They could
04:45have moved him away from the opening and freed the crew to prepare for landing. But the force of the
04:50airflow against the captain resisted their efforts. They could see him through the neighboring cockpit window.
04:56Close, enough to recognize, yet unable to bring him within reach of safety. Pulling harder was exhausting
05:03them. Nigel had already been holding on through the cold and the violent rush of air, and his strength
05:09was beginning to fail. That failure came gradually, making it impossible to ignore. His arms were losing
05:15the ability to keep doing what he needed them to do. Flight attendant Simon Rogers entered to relieve him.
05:21Changing places carried its own danger. Lancaster had to remain supported while one exhausted man gave way
05:28to another. As Simon secured his hold, the captain moved several inches farther through the opening.
05:33Simon managed to hold both ankles and braced himself in a nearby crew seat. Nigel had been relieved,
05:39but the problem remained. The captain was still outside, and they still could not pull him in.
05:45Acheson brought the aircraft lower and reduced its speed. He was finally able to exchange information with
05:51air traffic control and request directions to the nearest suitable airport. The destination was now Southampton.
05:58For the first time, the crew had somewhere specific to aim for. The journey toward Malaga had become a
06:04diversion to an English runway. Acheson followed the directions that would guide him there, flying beside
06:09the open window, while Simon maintained his hold. The passengers were getting closer to help. The
06:15captain still had to endure every remaining minute outside. As the minutes passed, another fear settled
06:21over those trying to save Lancaster. They could see how exposed he was. They knew how long he had been
06:27outside. Individually, members of the crew began to doubt that anyone could survive those conditions.
06:32They had no way to examine him properly, and the effort to bring him inside had failed. Still,
06:38they kept holding on. Nothing they could see gave them permission to abandon him.
06:43The aircraft was heading toward an airport now. Whatever had happened to their captain,
06:47they would have to carry that uncertainty through the descent. Southampton was close,
06:52but Acheson still had to confirm that its runway was long enough for the aircraft.
06:56He checked the available landing distance before continuing on to the approach.
07:00Now there was a workable route to the ground. Each step had to be completed while the cabin crew
07:06maintained their hold on Lancaster. Behind the cockpit, passengers were prepared for landing.
07:11The aircraft was under control, and an airport was ahead. Yet neither of those developments could
07:17answer the question weighing on the crew. Could their captain survive until they stopped?
07:22Then, late in the descent, at around 3,000 feet, Lancaster moved his legs. The men holding him felt a
07:30sign of
07:30life. After everything they had feared, the movement gave them reason to hope again.
07:35But hope could not bring him through the window. They still needed to land, and they still needed
07:41to keep hold of him until the aircraft stopped. The discovery changed what those final minutes meant.
07:47There was a man outside, who might yet come home. Acheson continued the approach, with his captain's
07:53chance of survival still hanging on the work of the entire crew. The runway finally came into view.
07:59The runway finally came into view. Acheson aligned the aircraft for landing, while Lancaster remained
08:03partly outside the cockpit. The men supporting him could not step away or relax their hold for the
08:09approach. They had to stay with him through the final descent and touchdown. 22 minutes after the
08:15window had blown out, the aircraft landed at Southampton. Acheson brought it to a stop on the runway.
08:21The wind that had made their work so difficult finally subsided. Now rescuers could reach the
08:27opening and do what the crew had been unable to accomplish in the air. Emergency personnel
08:32recovered Lancaster into the aircraft, while passengers left using the boarding stairs.
08:38During the rescue, the captain regained consciousness. He was alive. He needed hospital treatment for his
08:44injuries, but the crew had brought him back from a situation they had feared was impossible to
08:49survive. All 87 people aboard had reached the ground alive. For the passengers, the journey was
08:56over. For the exhausted crew, the colleague they had refused to release was finally in the hands of
09:01people who could care for him. One question still demanded an answer. The weather had been
09:06unremarkable. The aircraft had been climbing normally. What could make a cockpit window suddenly leave its
09:13frame? Investigators traced the failure to maintenance performed before the flight. The windscreen had
09:19recently been replaced, but the bolts used to secure it were the wrong size. Most were too narrow. The
09:26others were too short. As pressure inside the climbing aircraft pushed against the window, its fastenings
09:32failed to keep it in place. The opening that almost took Lancaster's life began with small components
09:38intended to hold him safely inside. The investigation also identified failures in maintenance practices
09:45and the oversight that should have caught them. Explaining the accident meant looking beyond the
09:50frightening moment in the sky to the work completed on the ground. The crew had inherited an emergency
09:56already set in motion before their passengers boarded. Their response prevented that failure from
10:02becoming a much greater tragedy. Atchison's flying, Nigel's first desperate hold, the help from
10:08John and Simon, and the care given to passengers all belong to the same rescue. Remove any part of
10:14that effort, and the others would have faced an even harder task. The story of Flight 5390 shows how
10:21much responsibility travels with every crew. Passengers usually meet that responsibility in ordinary ways,
10:27a welcome at the door, a safety demonstration, a calm announcement, directions through a busy cabin.
10:33Behind those familiar moments is demanding work that requires preparation, judgment, and attention
10:39to other people's safety. On this flight, the crew had to keep performing those duties while facing
10:45something terrifying at arm's length. Their achievement was built from actions taken one after
10:51another, with each person helping the next continue. Pilots and flight attendants spend their working
10:56lives, helping people reach destinations around the world. They carry families toward reunions,
11:03travelers toward new beginnings, and people home to those waiting for them. Most passengers step off
11:08the aircraft without ever seeing how much preparation and responsibility made that arrival possible.
11:14The crew of this flight made that hidden responsibility impossible to overlook. When their ordinary working
11:21day became an emergency, they kept flying, kept reassuring, and kept holding on. That morning,
11:27bringing everyone safely home included bringing back the man who had been responsible for flying them there.
