It didn't startle him. He had seen that happen before on other older Aloha jets. But Austin remembered the name painted across the plane's exterior: Queen Lili'uokalani. It was a 19-year-old Boeing 737.
A week later--on April 28, 1988--the same jet's roof ripped open 24,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, killing one flight attendant and seriously injuring seven passengers and a crew member. Austin counted himself lucky. Aloha Flight 243's last flight didn't really begin to grip him until the next year, when the National Transportation Safety Board issued its accident report.