Southwest FLT 812 emergency landing

(Photo: ackook.)

On April 1 2011, the passengers of Southwest Airlines Flight 812 had the scare of a lifetime. During flight in one of the airlines Boeing 737-300, the fuselage ruptured and a big hole appeared in the ceiling of the aircraft. Obviously this caused a very rapid decompression, surely causing pain in the ears and sinuses of some of the passengers. The pilots followed standard procedures and made a rapid descent to lower altitude so that the passengers could breathe normally. An emergency landing was carried out, without further incidents. Southwest are now checking the fuselages on their other planes.

Of course, this decompression and emergency landing must have been a terrible experience for most of the passengers. But at least the roof of the airplane stayed in place. This was not the case with Aloha Airlines Flight 243, where the airplane made an emergency landing with a big section of the aircrafts fuselage missing. Sadly, one of the stewardesses lost her life in this accident. Check out the communication between the co-pilot and ATC in the video below.