While Ogden held on for dear life, Co-pilot Alastair Atchison faced a monumental task. Not only did he have to fly an aircraft that was structurally compromised and depressurizing, but he had to do so while the captain’s body remained wedged against the outside of the window, obstructing his view and affecting the plane’s aerodynamics. With cool, calculated precision, Atchison took the controls. He knew he had to descend to an altitude where the crew and passengers could breathe, but he had to do so without flying so fast that the wind force would snap Nigel Ogden’s arms or tear Lancaster apart. He began an emergency descent, fighting the noise and the chaotic air currents to communicate with air traffic control.
The physical toll on Nigel Ogden was reaching a breaking point. His arms were becoming numb from the cold and the exertion, and frostbite was beginning to set in. He was slipping. Sensing the impending disaster, another flight attendant, Simon Rogers, rushed into the cockpit. He strapped himself into the observer’s seat and gripped Ogden’s belt, providing the leverage needed to keep the chain of survival intact. Eventually, Rogers took over the task of holding Lancaster’s legs, allowing a battered Ogden to retreat. Despite the grim sight of Lancaster’s head repeatedly striking the fuselage—a sight that led the crew to assume they were holding onto a corpse—Atchison gave a stern order: “Don’t let go.” He feared that if they released the body, it would be sucked into the rear-mounted engines, potentially causing a total engine failure and a secondary catastrophe.Continue reading…
