Blowout Over The Pacific

Another Boeing passenger plane "peels" in midair

Everything appeared normal on United Airlines Flight 811. En route from Honolulu to Auckland, New Zealand, the Boeing 747, carrying 336 passengers and a crew of 18, had climbed to 22,000 ft. over the Pacific. As the flight attendants were preparing to roll out the beverage carts, passengers in the forward section heard a hissing noise. Within seconds came a loud thump of bursting metal and a roar of cold air. "It was like a dream," said passenger Gary Garber later. "A section of the plane wasn't there any longer."

In its place was an immense hole, open to the cold...

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