Sichuan Airlines pilot was sucked halfway out of plane after cockpit windshield shattered
The flight captain has been praised as a hero for keeping his cool and manually landing the plane as chaos swirled around him
It turns out that when part of a Sichuan Airlines plane’s cockpit windshield was suddenly ripped away at 32,000 feet above Chengdu on Monday morning, a pilot almost went with it.
“There was no warning sign. Suddenly, the windshield just cracked and made a loud bang,” Captain Liu Chuanjian told the Chengdu Economic Daily. “The next thing I know, my co-pilot had been sucked halfway out of the window.”
“Everything in the cockpit was floating in the air,” he continued. “Most of the equipment malfunctioned… and I couldn’t hear the radio. The plane was shaking so hard I could not read the gauges.”
Liu is being hailed as hero in China for managing to keep his cool as extremely fast and freezing winds ripped through his cockpit. First, he helped his co-pilot, who had been saved only by his seat belt, get back in his seat. Then, he manually took control of the malfunctioning aircraft.
Ignoring the wind, the cold, and the deafening noise, he successfully landed the plane without incident.
As of 1.30am Beijing time on Wednesday morning, the hashtag #中国英雄机长# (“Chinese Hero Captain”) was on Weibo’s list of trending topics, receiving 180 million views and over 200,000 comments.
The Airbus 319 was travelling from Chongqing to Lhasa with 119 passengers on board when, about 30 minutes into the flight, the front-right panel of the cockpit windshield was suddenly ripped away, causing the equipment to malfunction and the plane to go into a free-fall for about five seconds.
Video clips from inside the cabin have been published online showing flight attendants attempting to reassure passengers, asking them to remain calm as Liu prepares to land the plane.
Sitting terrified in their seats while wearing oxygen masks, some of the passengers cried and vomited. Others simply held up their smartphones, recording footage of their fate.
Fortunately, following a steep and speedy descent, the plane landed safely at Chengdu’s airport at about 7:46 am on Monday morning. None of the passengers were injured. They later caught another flight to Lhasa.
Despite being nearly sucked out of the plane, the co-pilot ended up only suffering some scratches and a sprained wrist. A flight attendant was also injured in the descent.
At this time, it’s not still not clear how the plane’s cockpit windshield could have shattered and been ripped away. Because of the plane’s altitude, it’s unlikely that anything crashed into the windshield. Additionally, the plane was rolled off the production line in 2011 and has only made around 10,000 flights. Generally, windshields can endure at least 30,000 take-offs and landings.
Chen Jianguo, president of the flight expert committee affiliated to Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of China, has suggested that it’s also possible that there could have been heating problems or that there were issues that were created during improper maintenance, but, at this point, it’s really anyone’s guess.
