In 1990 British Airways pilot Tim Lancaster was sucked out of a window when it broke off and was pinned to the aircraft for 20 minutes while crew clung to his legs before landing. He suffered only minor injuries and was flying within 5 months.

From the flight deck, the flight and cabin crew were able to view his head and torso through the left direct vision window. Lancaster’s face was continuously hitting the direct vision window; when cabin crew saw this and noticed that Lancaster’s eyes were opened but not blinking despite the force against the window, they assumed that Lancaster was dead. Atchison ordered the cabin crew to not release Lancaster’s body despite the assumption of his death because he knew that releasing the body might cause it to fly into the left engine and cause an engine fire or failure which would cause further problems.