It was a miracle | News, Sports, Jobs

Thirty-five years ago this week, Maui witnessed a miracle.

Missing an 18-foot section of its fuselage and open to the sky like a convertible with its top lowered, Aloha Airlines Flt. 243 somehow touched down safely at Kahului Airport on April 28, 1988. The aged Boeing 737 named Queen Lili’uokalani defied the odds many times that day. She could have easily snapped in half after suffering catastrophic failure midway through the flight from Hilo to Honolulu. Only floor beams, many of them broken, held the jet’s two ends together. Its left engine failed during the 13-minute emergency detour to Kahului. Investigators credited the actions and expertise of the flight crew for keeping the mortally wounded craft from breaking apart in the air or while landing.

Tragically, lead flight attendant Clarabelle “C.B.” Lansing, 58, was swept from the jet during its rapid decompression over the ocean south of Maui. The beloved 37-year Aloha Airlines veteran was serving drinks to passengers in row five when metal fatigue and “crevice corrosion” caused the section of roof to separate and tear away. Lansing was the only fatality. Her body was never found.

Of the other 94 people aboard that day, 65 were injured, eight seriously. We mourn the loss of Lansing and have great sympathy for those who sustained life-changing injuries. Even those not physically harmed have admitted to carrying emotional scars.

There can be no minimizing what they felt then or feel now, but that day could have been so much worse. The Queen Lili’uokalani could rest on the ocean floor, a watery tomb. Or, after the heroic efforts of 44-year-old pilot, Capt. Robert Schornstheimer, and 36-year-old first officer Madeline “Mimi” Tompkins to coax the jet to Kahului, it could have tumbled as it rocketed down Runway Two. What a different 35-year editorial this would be if all lives aboard had been lost.

We’re not sure who coined the term, but it wasn’t long before the incident was being called, “The Miracle Landing of Aloha Airlines Flt. 243.” The story captivated the imaginations of readers and viewers around the world. What was briefly thought to be a terrorist attack turned out to be a tale of unlikely survival. Anyone who was there to witness the damage, to see how twisted and “springy” the remaining section of fuselage was, knows the miracle claims are not idle hyperbole.

Nor is the adage that you make your own luck. Schornstheimer and Tompkins drew upon their training, experience and nerve to bring that jet home. All passengers had their seatbelts fastened.

“I was just totally focused on having to make it,” Schornstheimer said during an interview with The Maui News five years ago. “I didn’t have time to dwell on what would happen if I didn’t.”

Thankfully, we can all dwell on something far better, a miracle landing.

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