On June 10, 1990, the captain of a BAC 1-11 aircraft was sucked out of the cockpit when a poorly secured windshield was blown out. The incident occurred in the skies over Didcot, 13 minutes after takeoff of flight BA5390 from Birmingham to Malaga. At the last moment, one of the flight attendants managed to grab hold of the captain. The co-pilot was able to land the aircraft 22 minutes later. None of the passengers were injured.
The incident involving the British Airways BAC 1-11 occurred in the skies above Didcot.
Sunday, June 10, 1990, was a pleasant day with scattered clouds. There was a light north wind, visibility was 10 kilometers, and the air temperature was +15°C, according to Stanley Stewart’s book Emergency: Crisis in the Cockpit. Flight BA5390 departed Birmingham International Airport for Malaga on schedule at 8:20 a.m. local time. The crew, led by Captain Tim Lancaster, was preparing for a routine flight. There were 81 passengers onboard.
After takeoff, the co-pilot, Alastair Atchison, handed over control of the aircraft to the captain. Lancaster engaged the autopilot. At 8:33 a.m., the airliner reached an altitude of 5,273 meters (17,300 feet) and was flying over Didcot, Oxfordshire. Everything seemed normal. The pilots loosened their shoulder harnesses, and Lancaster also loosened his lap belt. In the cabin, flight attendants were preparing to serve food and drinks.
Suddenly, a loud bang was heard, and decompression occurred in the aircraft. The left windshield of the cockpit, on the captain’s side, separated from the fuselage. The rushing air pulled Lancaster from his seat. He was sucked out of the cockpit through the opening. His back was pinned against the fuselage from the outside, and his legs were caught between the control yoke and the instrument panel. The cockpit door blew off and landed on the control panel, damaging communication with the ground. Flight attendant Nigel Ogden, who was in the cockpit at the time, rushed to the window and grabbed Lancaster by the waist.
“I heard the noise and, turning around, saw that the front window was gone and Tim was sliding through the opening. He was being sucked out so forcefully that I could only see his legs,” Ogden later recalled.
It was later revealed that the faulty windshield had been installed just 27 hours before the flight. It gave way under pressure that exceeded the holding capacity of the mounting bolts. Of the 90 bolts used, 84 were too small, and the remaining six were shorter than required. The investigation found that the maintenance shift manager, short on staff during the night shift, had replaced the windshield himself.
In a poorly lit storage area, he mistakenly took the wrong bolts—they were thinner than necessary—and installed them manually. He failed to notice that the countersinking was too shallow when the bolts were placed. He completed the job alone and skipped both the pressure test and the follow-up inspection, as required by regulations. In short, a human error at 5,000+ meters nearly caused a catastrophe.
The aircraft continued flying without a front windshield.
Flight attendant Susan Gibbins calmed the passengers and instructed them to fasten their seatbelts. The plane rapidly lost altitude, but Atchison managed to regain control. He initiated an emergency descent and re-engaged the autopilot, which had been disconnected when Lancaster’s legs hit the control yoke. Atchison then sent out a distress signal. However, due to the missing windshield, he could barely hear the air traffic controller’s instructions.
Meanwhile, Ogden suffered frostbite and struggled to hold onto the captain. He was soon assisted by two other flight attendants—Senior Steward John Heward and Simon Rogers. Through the window, everyone could see Lancaster lying motionless against the cockpit exterior, not even blinking despite the icy wind. His skin turned gray. Everyone thought he was dead, but they continued holding his body to prevent it from falling into the left engine.
Despite Ogden’s efforts, Lancaster slipped a few more centimeters out of the cockpit.
A trail of blood was visible outside the cockpit. Then one of the flight attendants sat in the captain’s seat, asked to be strapped in, and held tightly onto Lancaster’s ankles. He kept this grip all the way through landing, while being lashed in the face by -17°C wind gusts.
“I grabbed Tim’s legs, but I was nearly sucked out too—John pulled me back in by my belt. Everything kept flying and getting sucked out of the cockpit. An oxygen cylinder, which had been firmly secured, nearly hit me in the head. I couldn’t hold Tim any longer, and one of our colleagues tied a strap around his ankle and secured it to the seat. Someone said, ‘We may have to let him go,’ but I said I never would. I kept imagining having to face his family,” Ogden recounted.
Finally, the aircraft slowed down enough for Atchison to clearly hear London Air Traffic Control. He requested permission to land at Gatwick, but the controllers advised diverting to Southampton, which was closer. This put Atchison in a tough spot—he was unfamiliar with that airport, and all the manuals and documents that could help him had been sucked out of the cockpit. Nevertheless, he landed in Southampton.
The landing went smoothly. An emergency evacuation wasn’t even necessary—passengers disembarked via the stairway as usual and were met by psychologists at the terminal. From the moment the windshield detached to landing, only 22 minutes had passed.
Lancaster was pulled back into the cockpit. As it turned out, he had been unconscious but was alive.
A few minutes after landing, he opened his eyes. His first words were: “I want something to eat.”
Lancaster’s survival was considered nothing short of a miracle. He endured a 22-minute flight outside the plane, clinging to the fuselage at 600 km/h in -17°C conditions. He was taken out on a stretcher. In addition to frostbite, he had a broken right arm, wrist, and a finger on his left hand, along with numerous bruises. After rehabilitation, he returned to flying six months later.
Heward and Rogers were found to have minor injuries. Ogden had a dislocated shoulder and facial frostbite. He soon returned to work but suffered from PTSD and eventually changed careers. Co-pilot Atchison left aviation five years later. He, Gibbins, and Ogden were all awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air.
As for the maintenance manager who chose to trust his instincts over technical manuals, there is no public information about any punishment. He later said in an interview that if he had followed the manual, “the job would never have been finished,” and schedules would have been disrupted. The incident led to a comprehensive review of all maintenance procedures at Birmingham Airport and throughout British Airways.
