TIL a pilot of a mail carrier plane once flew upside down for an extended of period of time to disorient the disgruntled employee trying to murder him and his copilot with a hammer and speargun.

Are we watching the same video? That was the most boring shit I've ever watched. It's a half-assed flight sim video of a plane taking off and rolling and then flying nose-down. Fifteen minutes of very, very slowly spaced out subtitles that barely describe the situation with a few clips from the radio transmissions.

Just read the wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Express_Flight_705

As part of his plan to disguise the intended attack as an accident, Calloway attempted to disable the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) by pulling its circuit breaker to interrupt CVR power. During standard pre-flight checks, 39-year old flight engineer Andy Peterson noticed the pulled breaker and reset it before take-off so the CVR was reactivated. However, if Calloway successfully killed the crew members with the CVR still on, he would simply have to fly for 30 minutes to erase any trace of a struggle from the CVR's 30 minute loop.[6] About twenty minutes after takeoff, as the flight crew carried on a casual conversation, Calloway went into the back to get his weapons and entered the flight deck and commenced his attack. All three members of the crew took multiple hammer blows. Both Peterson and the 42-year old first officer Jim Tucker suffered fractured skulls, and Peterson's temporal artery was severed.[4] The blow to Tucker's head initially rendered him unable to move or react but he was still conscious. 49-year old Captain Dave Sanders reported that during the beginning of the attack, he could not discern any emotion from Calloway, just "simply a face in his eyes".[3] When Calloway ceased his attack with hammers, Peterson and Sanders began to get out of their seats to counter-attack. Calloway left the cockpit and retrieved his spear gun. He came back into the cockpit and threatened everyone to sit back down in their seats. Despite loud ringing in his ear and being dazed, Peterson grabbed the gun by the spear between the barbs and the barrel. A lengthy struggle ensued, while Tucker, also an ex-Navy pilot, performed extreme aerial maneuvers with the aircraft.[7]

Tucker pulled the plane into a sudden 15 degree climb, throwing Sanders, Peterson and Calloway out of the cockpit and into the galley. To try to throw Calloway off balance, Tucker then turned the plane into a left roll, almost on its side. This rolled the combatants along the smoke curtain onto the left side of the galley. Eventually, Tucker had rolled the plane nearly upside down at 140 degrees, while attempting to maintain a visual reference of the environment around him through the windows. Peterson, Sanders and Calloway were then pinned to the ceiling of the plane. Calloway managed to reach his hammer hand free and hit Sanders in the head again. Just then, Tucker put the plane into a steep dive.[3][7] This pushed the combatants back to the seat curtain, but the wings and elevators started to flutter. At this point Tucker could hear the wind rushing against the cockpit windows. At 460 knots (850 km/h; 530 mph), the plane's elevators became unresponsive due to the disrupted airflow. Tucker realized this was because the throttles were at full power. Releasing his only usable hand to pull back the throttles to idle, he managed to pull the plane out of the dive while it slowed down.[3][7]

Calloway managed to hit Sanders again while the struggle continued. Sanders was losing strength and Peterson was heavily bleeding from a ruptured artery. Sanders managed to grab the hammer out of Calloway's hand and attacked him with it. When the plane was completely level, Tucker reported to Memphis Center, informed them about the attack and requested a vector back to Memphis.[7] He requested an ambulance and "armed intervention", meaning he wanted SWAT to storm the plane. When Tucker began to hear the fight escalate in the galley, he tried to help his colleagues by putting the aircraft into a right turn then back to the left.[7]

The flight crew eventually succeeded in restraining Calloway, though only after moments of inverted and near-transonic flight beyond the designed capabilities of a DC-10. Sanders took control and Tucker, who had by then lost use of the right side of his body, went back to assist Peterson in restraining Calloway. Sanders communicated with air traffic control, preparing for an emergency landing back at Memphis International Airport. Meanwhile, after screaming that he could not breathe, Calloway started fighting with the crew again.[7]

Heavily loaded with fuel and cargo, the plane was approaching too fast and too high to land on the scheduled runway 9. Sanders requested by radio to land on the longer runway 36L.[7] Ignoring warning messages from the onboard computer and using a series of sharp turns that tested the DC-10's safety limits, Sanders landed the jet safely on the runway at 16,000 kilograms (18 short tons) over its maximum designed landing weight.[3] By that time, Calloway was once again restrained. Emergency personnel and police gained access to the plane via escape slide and ladder. Inside, they found the interior of the galley and cockpit covered in blood.[6] Calloway was then arrested and taken off the plane.[7]

/r/todayilearned Thread Parent Link - en.wikipedia.org