This is a weird detour but when I think of passengers falling out of airplanes, I think of three scenes: (a) Eddie Albert‘s Cadet Hughes falling out of a B-17 at 10,000 feet in Bombardier (’43), (b) Gert Frobe‘s portly Auric Goldfinger getting sucked out of a small window in a private airborne jet in Goldfinger (’64) and (c) Ed Nelson‘s Major Alexander, a 747 co-pilot, getting sucked through a smashed cockpit window in Airport 75.
Frobe’s Goldfinger scene was played for laughs, and if you ask me so was Nelson’s in Airport 1975. But Albert’s death scene was shocking and chilling.
34 years ago this same ghastly fate happened to Aloha Airlines senior stewardess Clarabelle “C.B.” Lansing. Through maintenance dereliction a tear in the fuselage was ignored and the roof above the first-class section of an Oahu-bound flight #243 was ripped off by wind velocity, and Lansing was sucked out. Her body was never recovered.
Yesterday morning I happened to watch a cartoonish video about Aloha Flight #243, produced by the “Be Amazed” YouTube channel — a brand apparently aimed at children. The animated images of the crew and passengers aren’t just primitive but wildly insensitive. Consider the below illustration of Lansing’s misfortune.
I’m not a scolder as a rule, but imagine if Lansing had a close family relative or a friend and they came upon this video.
