David Cronin, who was the Captain of UNITED AIRLINES Flight 811 on February 24, 1989, died on Monday at his home in Nevada. Cronin was 81. Flight 811, a Boeing 747-100, was enroute to Auckland, New Zealand, had made a scheduled stop in Honolulu, Hawaii. The aircraft then departed Honolulu with 337 passengers and 18 crew members onboard. As the 747 climbed through 22000 feet, the forward cargo door blew out, which created a gaping hole in the fuselage of the aircraft. 9 passengers, who had been seated in business class, were pulled out of the aircraft and were killed. A Flight Attendant in business class was nearly pulled out as well, but managed to hang on to a seat. Debris from the explosive decompression was ingested into both the No.3 and No.4 engines. Cronin started an emergency descent while shutting down the damaged engines and turning back towards Honolulu. 14 minutes after the cargo door blew, Cronin landed the plane back in Honolulu with no further loss of life. The NTSB ruled that a mechanical failure caused the cargo door to separate from the aircraft. UAL 811 was to have been Cronin's 2nd to last flight before he reached mandatory retirement at age 60. His performance was among the factors considered when the mandatory retirement age for Airline Pilots was raised to 65 by the FAA. The accident also precipitated design changes to the Boeing 747 cargo doors. In 1993 Cronin was asked how he handled the situation with so many emergencies taking place at the same time. "I just prayed," said Cronin. "I just prayed and got on with it."
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