Aloha Airlines is an airline headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii and serving both interisland routes within the Hawaiian Islands and transpacific routes between Hawaii, and three Western states and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Aloha Airlines is unique in that its jet fleet consists entirely of two types of Boeing 737 aircraft, a standard version (the 737-200) for the interisland runs and a long-range version (the 737-700) with wider wings and bigger fuel capacity for the mainland trips.

Its safety record rates an “A", the highest grade possible, according to Air Rankings Online (see rankings at Airline Rankings http://www.airsafetyonline.com/safetycenter/reportcard.shtml ). Rankings are cumulatives, based on the number of fatal accidents per million flights that the carrier has flown since 1970.

In December 2004, Aloha Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an attempt to cut costs and remain competitive with other airlines serving Hawaii.

1988 Aloha Airlines disaster

On April 28, 1988, Aloha Airlines Flight 243 Boeing 737 (N73711) interisland flight from Hilo Airport to Honolulu International Airport carrying 89 passengers and 6 crew members experienced rapid decompression when an 18 feet section of the fuselage roof and sides were torn from the airplane. One flight attendant was forced out of the airplane due to the pressure difference and died as a result. Several passengers sustained life-threatening injuries including instances of massive head wounds. The aircraft declared an emergency and landed at Kahului Airport with slight difficulty. Noise created by the rush of air rendered vocal communication useless and had to use hand signals during landing.

Investigations of the disaster, headquartered at Honolulu International Airport, concluded that the accident was caused by metal fatigue. The disaster caused almost all major United States air carriers to retire their oldest airplane models.

The event was dramatised as a television movie titled Miracle Landing. It starred Connie Sellecca and Wayne Rogers.

IATA Code

Aloha Airlines uses the IATA designator code AQ.

External links

• Aloha Airlines http://www.alohaairlines.com/
• Aloha Airlines crashes http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi_bin/airline_detail.cgi?airline=Aloha+Airlines

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