United Airlines Flight 811

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United Airlines Flight 811 was a regularly scheduled international flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, with intermediate stops at Honolulu and Auckland. On February 24, 1989, the Boeing 747 serving the flight experienced a cargo-door failure in flight shortly after leaving Honolulu. The resulting explosive decompression blew out several rows of seats, killing nine passengers. The aircraft returned to Honolulu and landed without further incident. In its report on the accident in April 1990, the NTSB asserted that it was not possible for a properly latched cargo door to have opened in mid-flight, and focused primarily on potential mishandling of the door by ground crew. It blamed the accident on in-service damage to the door locking mechanism. An alternative investigation by the parents of one of the victims focused instead on the design of the door latching mechanism and the electrical system that opens it. After the final report on the incident was issued, the cargo door was recovered by...

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