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Lauren Huxley and British Airways Flight 5390
48 Plays4 months ago
Sam shares the story of Lauren Huxley. Lauren Huxley was a victim of a violent attack in 1997, when she was abducted from her home in South Australia. After being held captive, she ultimately managed to escape, leading to a widespread manhunt for her assailant. Her courageous ordeal brought significant attention to issues of personal safety and the importance of support for victims of crime.
Jeff shares the story of British Airways Flight 5390. As the airplane flew over very busy British airspace on the way to Spain something terrifying happened. A windscreen panel that had not been properly installed detached from its frame, leading to the captain being partially expelled from the aircraft. Captain Lancaster remained secured by the window frame and flight attendants for 20 minutes until the first officer successfully landed at Southampton Airport.
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Sam's sources:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-26/lauren-huxley-sydney-home-attack-random-robert-farmer-parole/10592222
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/lauren-huxley-turning-30-and-living-the-normal-life-nobody-thought-she-could-20161125-gsx83l.htmlhttps://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/shock-update-after-aussie-doused-with-petrol/news-story/0eb5a9788f83f721c91d3f45e555a57chttp://netk.net.au/DNA/DNA64.asphttps://www.smh.com.au/national/huxley-attacker-was-out-on-bail-report-20080519-2fsu.htmlhttps://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/the-law-defences-and-penalties-for-attempted-murder-in-new-south-wales/https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-1899-009#sch.1
Jeff's sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_5390
https://www.ripleys.com/stories/flight-5390
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Transcript
Podcast Launch Bloopers
00:00:00
Jeff Rogers
Hello, Sam. Hi, Jeffrey.
00:00:24
Jeff Rogers
Hello Samantha. Hi. I'm Jeff and you are, did I fuck that up? You did. I hope we're going to do that again. go ahead. Damn it, I also just cussed right at the top of the show. Start from the top. Welcome to the Sam and Jeff show.
00:00:38
Jeff Rogers
Take three. Take three. Hold up. Okay. Welcome to the Jeff and Sam show. I'm Jeff. And I'm Sam. We're going to get there. I'm going to get there. That's good words' good. Words are difficult. That's a good way to start. yeah What a way. You know, it wouldn't be us if it wasn't us being us, you know?
00:00:58
Jeff Rogers
And I think the people that listen to this listen to it for that reason.
Tech Mishaps and Funny Stories
00:01:02
Jeff Rogers
Because we're such perfectionists. Duh. Everything goes so swimmingly well. Swimmingly At all times. Because that's who we are Perfection.
00:01:12
Jeff Rogers
so welcome to the show you can find us on instagram our email instagram everything is in the show notes rate us review us subscribe but subscribe jesus i'm having a hard time jesus ain't got nothing to do with it right he's like no part of that no part of that it doesn't help that right before we hit record my dad called To say, because last week's episode, I talked about him trying to find the purple button on his phone, trying to play the iApple heart pod vlog thing.
00:01:48
Jeff Rogers
The vlog. And he called to drop some F-bombs to us because we were talking about how we cuss. And that we shouldn't cuss because his dad
Sleep Troubles and Life Updates
00:01:58
Jeff Rogers
listens and it made cringe. Reasonably, he can find that purple button on his phone. iApplecast blog. Blog podcasty thingy.
00:02:07
Jeff Rogers
That's us. And he found us. And he called just to tell us he heard every word. And then he was laughing so hard he was crying. He had to pull over because he was laughing and it was turning into tears. Oh, that's good. You know what? Amazing.
00:02:20
Jeff Rogers
If nothing else. Period. Then that will carry me on doing this show. Yeah. Period. That was good. Yeah. Yeah. How are you? What's going on? I'm good. I'm tired. Do you know how good it feels to close my eyes?
00:02:31
Jeff Rogers
got to close my eyes during the opening song, and I don't think I was going to open them. I don't know I did. You've been working like crazy. yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're going to make it.
00:02:43
Jeff Rogers
i am. You're going to make it because we're going to do this, and you're going to go home and sleep until tomorrow. True. And it's only 3 o'clock in the afternoon. True.
Unusual Plumbing Solutions
00:02:52
Jeff Rogers
But over the course of the past 72 hours, I've gotten a grand total of like six hours of sleep. So I'm allowed to sleep for like 16. Look, i want sometimes i want to sleep for the whole weekend. Yeah. When it's like cold outside and raining or whatever, i want to hunker down and sleep for an entire fucking weekend. Like wake up only to go to the bathroom.
00:03:14
Jeff Rogers
Don't even need food. It's just like you're a bare hibernator. I get it. But I will drink water. i will keep water at the bedside. I'll drink water. and then put it down, get up, go pee, go back to bed and have the electric blanket on my bed.
00:03:28
Jeff Rogers
So it's like the moment I lay down on that bed. Yep, out, out like a light. No, see, if I ever do that, I don't even like feed or water myself. i The only time I get up is to go pee and then I lay right back down.
00:03:42
Jeff Rogers
But I also have an obsession with brushing my teeth. So every time I get up to pee, I brush my teeth. So that's the only thing I do. That's good, though. Yeah. Probably should drink a little water. Probably. Yeah. I've survived this far.
00:03:54
Jeff Rogers
Right. My kidneys are probably fine. Probably. They're probably good. Just like my liver. Right? It's good. It's probably good.
Frankenstein Movie Review
00:04:02
Jeff Rogers
It's great. Yeah. um i I was in middle of taking a nap yesterday.
00:04:09
Jeff Rogers
i mean like there should be no in the middle was in the middle of it and knock on the door no but it kind of had to happen because my plumbing was backed up the kitchen sink it was like it was full and runneth over into the floor it was insane so the plumber had to come and fix the sink And that was so interesting to watch, by the way.
00:04:37
Jeff Rogers
You know how i told you that in the emergency department, I love to watch the little GI procedure where they go in and pull the chicken out of the esophagus. He had the same thing. Like he had the camera.
00:04:49
Jeff Rogers
He had a bedside endoscopy? It looked like it because the monitor was there. I sent you the picture. Like you're watching the monitor as his camera is on the end of the long cord and he sends it down the tube.
00:05:01
Jeff Rogers
Oh, I didn't even realize that's what that was. And he was narrating the video. I was i told you I'd love to watch them pull a chicken bone out of somebody's esophagus. We were just talking about that. This was similar to that. i was asking him questions. What did he pull out of your... Nothing. There was like a clog way down there, like at a 90 degree turn.
00:05:20
Jeff Rogers
no So nothing. He just broke through. roto-rooted it? Roto-rooted it. it Yeah. like Like cleaning out some arteries. Yeah, really.
00:05:31
Jeff Rogers
He did. It was so fascinating. And he was ah the nicest man. We had the greatest conversation. he may have cried a little bit. I don't know. he he said, what's what was your name again? I said, Jeff. And he said, that was my brother's name.
00:05:44
Jeff Rogers
He had lost his brother like a year ago suddenly from a heart attack. And so he just had this moment. It was like a nice moment that we had. That's really sweet. With the plumber. That's really sweet. That's really sweet. That's such a fucking Jeff thing.
00:05:57
Jeff Rogers
You know, I love it. i Everything about that. Somebody comes to my house to fix anything. And I'm like, just do what you need to do and be gone. No, we ended up crying. Don't interact with me. Don't talk to me. I'm not your friend. I don't want i don't want to, like, socialize. No.
00:06:11
Jeff Rogers
I'm paying you way
Lauren Huxley's Survival Story
00:06:12
Jeff Rogers
too much fucking money to do this job, so just get it done. No, not me. I mean, I was sitting here typing stuff for the story today, and he wasn't, like, really interacting because he was doing his job, but then I asked questions about what he was doing, and it went from there.
00:06:26
Jeff Rogers
Yeah. I guess that's the benefit of having, like, a multi-level house, though, right? Because if someone comes in and they have to fix something in one area, I'm just, like, me. Yeah. Gone. Yeah.
00:06:37
Jeff Rogers
And then they'll call and be like, oh, ma'am, we're all done here. Be like, okay, bye. Have a good day. I have no pants on. Just close your behind you. No, I literally would have hugged him because he was crying. But he had the plumbing suit on and I'm not.
00:06:50
Jeff Rogers
The plumbing suit, which is exactly like your Michael Myers costume? Absolutely. That's exactly what it looked like. Yeah. You should have come out with yours on and like, can I help you? Uh-huh. next time with the michael myers mask on no because that's a good way to get somebody to like i don't know throw something at you maybe stab you with a roto-rooting camera from a it'd be caught on camera plumbers thing of but anyway he was lovely that was ah cool experience plus i got to watch that thing that looked like the endoscopy
00:07:22
Jeff Rogers
That's awesome. Little joys in life. Really. Didn't know that they did that. And I was like, but who? like Because he was narrating the video of him going down the tube.
00:07:33
Jeff Rogers
I'm like, who is watching? I'm like, do you have an online presence? Is somebody watching this on TikTok? I didn't know. It's for his own benefit. So when people try to scam and say he didn't do his job.
00:07:45
Jeff Rogers
Oh, so he's like dictating yeah everything. so that Oh, that's cool. That's cool. but have a I thought maybe he's a TikToker. I don't know. He was given the best narration of this video.
00:07:57
Jeff Rogers
That's awesome. And then last night, I sat down and I watched Frankenstein. And? holy fuck can i just tell you kayla told me that you guys watched it yeah and she said it was amazing and it was beautiful and incredible and then she and i were sitting through that like and it was just she and i were so in sync sarah was sitting off in the corner like quietly reacting to it but kayla and i would both at the exact same time be like no
00:08:29
Jeff Rogers
no oh my god i thought it was beautiful i thought it was such a benicio del toro is the one that did that movie and it is no it's guillermo guillermo del toro yeah benicio that's an actor yeah it was beautiful the story so good brilliant on netflix y'all on Netflix.
Recovery and Resilience
00:08:53
Jeff Rogers
it. It's a must.
00:08:54
Jeff Rogers
And that was, it was two and a half hours and at the end of it, I did not want it to be over. Correct. I agree. wanted there to be a chapter three. There needed to be more. It could have just gone on for four hours and I'd watched it. Yes.
00:09:05
Jeff Rogers
It was so good. The actors were perfectly cast. Mm-hmm. and just everything the whole vibe the the cinematic experience was the creature my god he was amazing god i had to like throw a wet towel on kayla and sarah when we were watching i was like all right ladies yeah take it ac yeah ashley ashley was telling me the same thing I was like, ah you know, I just don't see it. And I'm not going to be one to say that, like, I don't see that men can be attractive.
00:09:38
Jeff Rogers
Not at all. We've talked about this before. Like, I can look at a dude and be like, yeah, I could see him being, say yes, he's an attractive male. There's just obviously no, nothing further than that, right? But this dude in the movie was Frankenstein's monster. So he was, like, stitched together and basically wearing a diaper, right? And so it just wasn't doing it for me.
00:10:02
Jeff Rogers
yeah me either i wasn't honestly the man is beautiful like what was the other show that he was in that we watched oh we just talked about this it was on like hbo uh anyway in that show he's gorgeous i mean jacob i can't remember elody elordi yeah what did we just talk about that he that we were talking about that he was in Whatever.
00:10:31
Jeff Rogers
Euphoria. He was in Euphoria. He was something else, too. This was a cringe, so I couldn't finish that one. But he's a beautiful, beautiful man, but not... and You know, he was the creature in Frankenstein.
00:10:43
Jeff Rogers
And what my thing... Salt burn. Yeah. no that was
Medical Miracles and Similar Cases
00:10:50
Jeff Rogers
a crazy one That was... i don't even know if crazy...
00:10:55
Jeff Rogers
No, that was crazy. That was insane. Oh, he's going to be in the 2026 revamp of Wuthering Heights. thats and Yeah, I remember that. Seeing the preview for that. All right.
00:11:07
Jeff Rogers
Cool, cool, cool. Should we do this thing? um Yeah, but you know you missed out when i um on Sunday night. You know how I was like busy throughout the day? But then it like mellowed out.
00:11:19
Jeff Rogers
So it was me, Sadar, and Conway. And somehow we started talking about how I jacked up my joints are and stuff. And... Siddhar like, you know, just great in every way. Right. But I found out some super cool information, like about a minor that she took in in college. And like, it was just so unexpected. But then we started talking about like yoga and all that kind of stuff. And next thing you know, Conway's putting on some little yogi tunes and we turned the lights down, we get some towels and we're all just doing yoga in the dog box. I saw the picture. It was great. yeah
00:11:56
Jeff Rogers
It was great.
00:11:57
Jeff Rogers
on silence. Hi. Hello. Can we help you? It's on sleep, which means that that person just intentionally double called me within three minutes. And it was spam.
00:12:07
Jeff Rogers
Spam. That's dedication. That's the only call I get. Unless it's from my dad saying, what the fuck was that? ah okay what are drinking oh yeah drinking oh oh shake it up i am drinking a mountain hippie soda company bubbly lemonade bought these in fort pain alabama well oh no it is super groovy looking It is very groovy. We ate at this amazing restaurant, and I wish I could remember the name, but I cannot remember the name, but it was me and Ashley and Alan and Ethan and Savannah, Kirsten, but no Sam.
00:12:51
Jeff Rogers
Not me. I was there in spirit. Okay. Yes. I'm drinking the ginger beer. no o All right. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.
00:13:03
Jeff Rogers
and Okay. And now you get to flip the coin. Which BTW? The coin flip from last week. We flipped the penny on the last day the penny was minted.
00:13:14
Jeff Rogers
Forever. forever Forever. And we were talking about that on the show. Tell me when to stop.
00:13:22
Jeff Rogers
Stop.
00:13:24
Jeff Rogers
Sierra Leone. Ooh. All right, so i don't know what's on these. So we got a man and then a rug, maybe.
00:13:35
Jeff Rogers
you want to be the man or the rug? Rug.
00:13:39
Jeff Rogers
don't know if it's a rug, but you can be the rug. It's like the fourth week in a row you've caught that damn thing. Indeed. Tis the man. Oh. Okay.
00:13:50
Jeff Rogers
So that means i am going. But you know what? You're tired. Go. Do yours. Knock it out of the ballpark. And then I'll... Don't take offense if I start snoring when you're... I'll throw a good story at you.
00:14:01
Jeff Rogers
Okay. But still don't take offense because I know that your stories are always good. But so at some point exhaustion just takes over. So... All right.
00:14:11
Jeff Rogers
Hit me. Lauren Huxley was a vibrant, healthy, happy young woman. In the early 2000s, at 18 years old, she was enrolled at something called TAFE, the Technical and Further Education Institute.
00:14:25
Jeff Rogers
On Wednesday, November 9, 2005, she finished
Aviation Close Call
00:14:29
Jeff Rogers
her marketing class and hopped on a bus to take her home, just as she did every week. When she arrived home, she immediately went to the back doors and she spread those French doors wide open to have airflow coming through the house because it was November in Australia, which apparently was toasty in 2005. Oh, Australia. Okay.
00:14:53
Jeff Rogers
At the time that she opened the door, a man jumped out and surprised her. i don know Lauren didn't recognize him, so she immediately took off running through the house to get away.
00:15:06
Jeff Rogers
He chased her through the yard and then backed her into the garage where he brutally attacked her with a heavyb heavy fibro cutters, which is stupid heavy metal piece of equipment that looks kind of like a medieval torture device.
00:15:22
Jeff Rogers
After beating her violently, he used electrical cords to tie her up. He then doused her in gasoline or petrol, as they call it down under. He went to the kitchen, lit a flame, and set the house on fire.
00:15:37
Jeff Rogers
Her parents, Christine and Pat, started receiving frantic phone calls from the neighbors telling them that their house was engulfed in flames. They rushed home. As the firefighters fought to contain the fire, they told the police, it's fine-ish, it's just a house fire, the house is empty.
00:15:54
Jeff Rogers
But Senior Constable Danny Eade recalled that something didn't feel right when he got there. He noted that the gate on the side of the house was open. There was the smell of petrol.
00:16:08
Jeff Rogers
And then there was like partially done laundry hanging on the line. Then there was a full basket next to it on the ground. Like someone had been planning to do it or was doing it.
00:16:20
Jeff Rogers
He opened the garage door and his eyes immediately fell upon the ground to what he thought was a mannequin. It was a completely motionless body. Mm-hmm. He stepped closer and he started hearing a faint, strained gurgling sound coming from what he realized was the mostly lifeless body of 18-year-old Lauren Huxley.
00:16:44
Jeff Rogers
As soon as they realized that she was just a little bit alive, everybody rushed into action. Lauren's parents watched in horror. To this day, the first responders involved in her case still can't fathom the depravity from the perpetrator.
00:17:02
Jeff Rogers
They recall the heinous violence and the cruelty, and they're all scarred. Lauren in critical condition and knocking on death's door was rushed to Westmead hospital.
00:17:14
Jeff Rogers
Staff reported that she was unrecognizable as a human. Her skull was shattered, including both eye sockets. And she had brain fluid flowing out of her nose, which we know obviously in the medical field and even layman, you shouldn't have CSF brain fluid coming out of anything.
00:17:37
Jeff Rogers
Like, as far as bad signs go? That's top-notch horrible. Yeah. Like, drill a hole and do something. In addition to the physical trauma, the burns were extensive.
00:17:51
Jeff Rogers
The doctors explained to Pat christ and and Christine that Lauren only had a 5% chance of survival. Kind of understandably. I mean, again, from our point of view, that's, yeah.
00:18:05
Jeff Rogers
Lauren underwent countless surgeries to reassemble her skull. In total, surgeons used 28 titanium plates. Damn. She remained in a coma for 23 days.
00:18:19
Jeff Rogers
Her sister vividly recalls the guttural scream she released when the doctors told the family that Lauren would likely not survive even her first night. The family stayed by her side, hearing the constant beeps and the thrumming of the machines, seeing the tubes and the drains sticking out of her.
00:18:37
Jeff Rogers
With their home destroyed, and a crime scene, the Huxleys moved into a home near the hospital. They all took leave from their jobs. After three weeks of watching Lauren fight for her life, her attacker still had yet to be caught.
00:18:51
Jeff Rogers
The family took to the media to beg for information. The police questioned thousands of people and led an extensive manhunt. Eventually, they got a break with a DNA match from evidence left on one of the petrol cans.
00:19:07
Jeff Rogers
The match was for a man named Robert Black Farmer, who was a career criminal that was out on bail at the time of the attack. There was one in 10 billion probability that the DNA was anyone other than him.
00:19:23
Jeff Rogers
And we've talked about this before, right? like You can't say it's definitely him, but the likelihood of it being someone else. um Which in the history of cases in Australia, there's never been such a solid lead, right?
00:19:37
Jeff Rogers
Additional DNA from Farmer was also found on other objects throughout the house, including in her room. Farmer, out on bail, again, had been arrested for stealing 1,000 liters of petrol two months before the attack.
00:19:50
Jeff Rogers
He was arrested for that while he was on parole from another offense. Oh, man.
00:19:58
Jeff Rogers
Lauren remained in a coma with the family close by. The doctors continued to say that even if she did wake up, which was highly unlikely, she would never walk, never talk, and never be able to feed herself ever again.
00:20:11
Jeff Rogers
By Christmas, the stress was wearing on the family, and it showed. Christmas morning came around, they had a huge argument breakout, which left everybody in tears and just kind of secluded in the house that they were renting, eating their Christmas lunch alone.
Flight Incident Aftermath and Reflection
00:20:26
Jeff Rogers
After a few hours, they decided to get it together and go visit Lauren. With their nerves fried, and emotions high, and their hearts breaking, they entered Lauren's hospital room. They found Lauren in her bed with her eyes open and looking at them.
00:20:40
Jeff Rogers
She looked up at her mom and she said, no Mom, I love you. oh The tension bubble burst. Everybody fell into tears because not only was Lauren awake, she was speaking and she still recognized her family. Fuck yes.
00:20:56
Jeff Rogers
Her battle was not over yet. Upon release from the hospital, she spent seven months in a brain injury unit for intensive rehabilitation. Every day was a physical struggle.
00:21:07
Jeff Rogers
She had to relearn how to walk, which was an extremely painful process, and Simone remembers watching her and hearing her scream with every step she took. After her feeding tubes were removed, she tried to eat her first meal, but it took her three hours just to finish a few bites.
00:21:25
Jeff Rogers
Her speech therapy was also arduous. In addition to the physical issues, she was also dealing with the mental and emotional trauma. Her scars and her shaved head were a constant reminder of things that she actually did not remember.
00:21:42
Jeff Rogers
She had no recollection of the attack or the fire, but she looked in the mirror every day, saw her shaved head, saw those scars, and knew that something horrible had happened as she's trying to learn how to do basic things, right, that we take for granted every day.
00:21:59
Jeff Rogers
Four months after the attack, her doctors gave permission to the police for them to tell her what had happened. She was horrified, but then realized that some of the pieces started falling into place.
00:22:10
Jeff Rogers
She still couldn't remember the events, and she always talks about it in her speeches and talks about how it's her brain protecting her, you know? But she did say that at that moment, she could only feel grateful that she was alive.
00:22:25
Jeff Rogers
Never once did she say, why me? Never once did she get angry at him. That's amazing. Right? Yeah. Farmer's trial occurred in 2008.
00:22:36
Jeff Rogers
Lauren chose not to attend. He was charged with attempted murder. Evidence was presented for six weeks. The jury deliberated for only three hours, found him guilty on the attempted murder and additional charges of maliciously damaging her home by fire with the intent to endanger her life.
00:22:54
Jeff Rogers
and detaining her for advantage. Her family was present through the entire trial. Lauren did go to his sentencing hearing, though.
00:23:03
Jeff Rogers
That just is brave right there. Yeah. Strong, strong. Yeah. Yeah. Over the course of the five years after the attack, Lauren underwent additional surgeries and continued rehab.
00:23:14
Jeff Rogers
After her recovery, Lauren decided to make the most of the life that she still had. After she turned 21, she and her sister took off traveling. They spent time in the U.S. where they got to do Disney World and loved every moment of it.
00:23:27
Jeff Rogers
Lauren visited Thailand, the U.K., and other countries in Europe. Simone got married in Bali and Lauren was her maid of honor. She is now an aunt to Simone's two daughters.
00:23:39
Jeff Rogers
So the girl who was never supposed to live through a single night, let alone talk, walk, or eat, now has a job working for neurosurgeons ah yeah in Sydney.
00:23:51
Jeff Rogers
She has her driver's license and she frequently meets up with friends for lunches, dinners, and drinks after work. Robert farm Farmer is now up for parole. Having served 20 years out of the 24-year sentence, not once has he shown any remorse or acknowledged the suffering he inflicted on Lauren and her family.
00:24:14
Jeff Rogers
Not once did he admit to what he had done. As we know from the telling of the Alison Bautista story, the Australian criminal justice system is, I don't really know how to describe it. It's not it's just not the toughest on crimes, you know.
00:24:28
Jeff Rogers
um at the time of the attack, Farmer had already been convicted 26 times of violent offenses. Although he was on parole, he was only sentenced to 24 years for the immensely horrific crimes that he had committed against Lauren.
00:24:45
Jeff Rogers
Lauren and her family were traumatized beyond belief by his actions. As his parole nears, the family has not shied away from the publicity, and she and they speak out to criticize what the system is doing.
00:24:59
Jeff Rogers
When the family was notified of his upcoming parole, Simone commented, quote, she spent seven months in hospital. She was 18 years old. She had a future to look forward to, and he stole it.
00:25:10
Jeff Rogers
He got a minimum of 20 years for that, a maximum of 24. We got a life sentence. It's true. Sentencing guidelines vary ah by state and territory within Australia with some basic principles across the board.
00:25:27
Jeff Rogers
So the idea that there are maximum penalties, there are standard sentences for certain crimes, and there's a mandatory minimum sentence for other specific crimes.
00:25:38
Jeff Rogers
The overall sentencing is laid down by a judge who takes into consideration factors regarding the severity, the criminal history, or any mitigating or aggravating circumstances. According to the Crimes Act of 1900, okay, like maybe let's revamp this a bit,
00:25:55
Jeff Rogers
The maximum sentence for attempted murder in New South Wales, which is where Lauren's attack happened, is 25 years in prison. On the flip side, according to the Penalties and Sentences Act of 1992, attempted murder in Queensland is punishable by life imprisonment with a minimum of 30 years served.
00:26:15
Jeff Rogers
The spectrum of sentencing throughout Australia is wild and impossible to understand. understand especially when it comes to these violent offenses like Allison and Lauren.
00:26:27
Jeff Rogers
To Lauren, though, it is important to celebrate all the good in her life, and she says, this could have been taken away from me. Throughout her ah ordeal, with the exception of the early days of recovery, she has maintained ah positive outlook and enthusiasm for life.
00:26:43
Jeff Rogers
Lauren did some public speaking for a time to help raise awareness about violence against women. In one event, she told the audience, quote, never be ashamed of your scars, so as it simply means that you were and are stronger than the person that tried to hurt you.
00:26:57
Jeff Rogers
Lauren did what no one thought possible. She overcame unbelievable physical injury and beat the odds in every way. With her family at her side, she proved all the professionals wrong by surviving and living her life to the fullest.
00:27:11
Jeff Rogers
Today, Lauren Huxley is still a vibrant, happy, healthy young woman who has thrived in the face of overwhelming adversity. Hell yes, Lauren. That's amazing.
00:27:23
Jeff Rogers
Survivor. Right? Yeah, she's incredible. 28 titanium plates. That's unbelievable. So it's, they kind of made me think though.
00:27:34
Jeff Rogers
um I had many, many years ago, I had a patient who had come in who um
00:27:42
Jeff Rogers
not the same mechanism of injury, um but the injuries were similar in that the impact had caused the skull to get crushed.
00:27:56
Jeff Rogers
And so obviously you think of head trauma like that and brain swelling and that concept of like you have this cranial vault, right? and There's only so much room. And so when someone has a head injury and there's bleeding in there or whatever, you drill a hole to relieve the pressure.
00:28:11
Jeff Rogers
But like with Lauren, she had so many fractures that were so significant that her brain was able to swell. huh yeah. And so- it's that's the only thing that I can think of that made it so that she didn't just herniate on the garage yeah like a hundred things that happened so she could live yeah that's incredible Have you ever been in the ER when they've drilled a skull?
00:28:40
Jeff Rogers
I've drilled a skull. Yeah. Yeah. love it. my God. I love it. Feeling that pop when it goes through. Oh, I love it. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
00:28:51
Jeff Rogers
So good. Seeing a heart. I've seen a heart. I've done manual cardiac massage. It was insane. Yeah. see we have kind of cool jobs yeah we have really not anymore but we did when we were real nurses it's great it's great okay are you ready darling darling that was cute i need to take a sip how's your ginger beer delish very delish
00:29:25
Jeff Rogers
think it's a company out of North Carolina. How's your lemonade? It's good. You're not selling it with the face. No, I'm But I was also very... You also have a coffee sitting there that says Death Wish Coffee, and I thought that was cute.
00:29:37
Jeff Rogers
You know, it just picks me up a little bit. A little bit? Because you're like a totally revamped Energizer bunny right now. Okay, maybe a lot a bit. it picks me up a lot a bit. Your eyes are kind of going like this.
00:29:49
Jeff Rogers
Woo! All right, you ready? i am. On the 10th of June, 1990... nineteen ninety Yikes!
00:29:57
Jeff Rogers
and the skies over england after an explosive decompression british airways flight fifty three ninety as the plane climbed toward a cruising altitude of twenty three thousand feet on a flight to malaga spaine the cockpit windshilld suddenly blew out yeah i sucking the captain partially out of the plane While the flight attendants held on to his legs for dear life, the sole remaining pilot lined up for a harrowing emergency landing landing in Southampton, England, working alone under enormous pressure to save the lives of 81 passengers.
00:30:34
Jeff Rogers
The harrowing story of Flight 5390 began a couple of days before the flight in a British Airways maintenance facility in Birmingham, England, at 3 in the morning.
00:30:45
Jeff Rogers
One of the planes in for service that night was British Aerospace BAC-111, and that is the plane that was used for this flight, this British Airways Flight 5390.
00:30:57
Jeff Rogers
It's just insane. And the sources I used, Ripley's, believe it or not, Wikipedia, and but there was an article in Medium Online. love Medium.
00:31:08
Jeff Rogers
I do. It's the best. And this was by C.S. Blackwood. There's also a show called Mayday Air Disaster. Oh, yeah, I'll watch that. Fuck off. i did Look, I watched it last night, and I took all these notes that I couldn't even read today to put into the... I'm like trying to read my own handwriting.
00:31:25
Jeff Rogers
Okay, so 81 passengers and six crew boarded the flight on the morning of the 10th of June, 1990, including two pilots, Captain Tim Lancaster and First Officer Alistair Atchison.
00:31:37
Jeff Rogers
Oh, that a name. It's the most British name ever. You can't even be mad about it. Way go. Nope. As flight 5390 climbed out of Birmingham, All was normal at first.
00:31:49
Jeff Rogers
Approaching 17,000 feet, the flight attendants began drink service. The pilots undid their seatbelts and ordered breakfast. Breakfast would never arrive on that flight.
00:32:00
Jeff Rogers
Moments later, the plane climbed... Up to 17,300 feet. The pressure differential between the cockpit and the outside air grew to the point that the improperly installed captain side windshield could no longer hold.
00:32:17
Jeff Rogers
Like the one on the side? It's the one in front of the captain. The whole big windshield in front of the captain. No. The violent pressure equalization ripping away every loose object and sending debris hurtling into the cockpit and then the windshield popped off.
00:32:33
Jeff Rogers
this put To put this in perspective, it would be as if you were driving your truck and your windshield just randomly flew off, except you're driving over 500 miles per hour and suspended 23,000 17,000 feet in the air.
00:32:48
Jeff Rogers
The decompression sucked Captain Lancaster upward and outward, pulling him halfway out of the cockpit pit before his feet became entangled in the control column. So the only thing saving that man was that his feet were wrapped up in the gears of the plane.
00:33:05
Jeff Rogers
The explosion also ripped the cockpit doors off the hinges and slammed it forward into the center console, blocking the throttle levers. Captain Lancaster's knees were caught on the flight controls and his upper torso remained outside of the aircraft, exposed to extreme wind and extreme cold.
00:33:24
Jeff Rogers
The autopilot disengaged, causing the plane to descend rapidly. The flight deck door was blown inward onto the control console, blocking the throttle control,
00:33:39
Jeff Rogers
causing the aircraft to gain speed as it descended Flight documents and checklists were blown out of the cockpit and debris blew in from the passenger cabin.
00:33:51
Jeff Rogers
Well, they don't really need those flight documents anyway, right? Right, nah. Nigel Ogden, he was a flight attendant. He rushed to grab Lancaster's belt while the other two flight attendants secured objects, reassured passengers, and instructed them to adopt brace, like, oh shit, brace yourself positions. Tuck, tuck.
00:34:10
Jeff Rogers
In anticipation of the emergency landing. No, thank you. Within seconds of the explosion, flight attendant Nigel Ogden caught sight of the situation in the cockpit and ran over to Atchison's aid. He was the second pilot.
00:34:23
Jeff Rogers
He rushed in and grabbed Captain Lancaster's waist just in time to stop him from going all the way out, holding on for dear life as the air continued to rush into the plane. Moments later, the pressure equalized and the wind came roaring back in the other way, pinning Captain Lancaster backwards across the top of the fuselage, creating a tornado of loose debris inside the cockpit." The plane was rapidly losing altitude and Atchison couldn't reach the throttle levers.
00:34:51
Jeff Rogers
This is the second pilot, now without the first pilot. Well, duh, because that dude just got sucked out of a plane and then thrown him back in. He frantically issued a mayday call, but over the sound of the wind, he couldn't tell if the controllers heard him or not.
00:35:04
Jeff Rogers
The wind inside the cockpit and the main cabin was about 350 375 miles per hour. And think about this. An tornado? five miles per hour and think about this an f five tornado the wind is between 261 and 316 or 318 miles per hour.
00:35:22
Jeff Rogers
So this is stronger than an F-5 tornado. So essentially, First Officer Atchison is flying the plane while basically sitting in an F-5 tornado inside the plane.
00:35:33
Jeff Rogers
Why do we ever get on planes? When you find out the reason why this happened, it just adds to it, adds to that question right there.
00:35:44
Jeff Rogers
In the main cabin with all the passengers, a fog was created when the windshield popped out. With rapid decompression like this, the air in the cabin can't hold on to water vapor.
00:35:54
Jeff Rogers
So the water vapor is released into the atmosphere, causing a really, like, white fog, right? That's fucking bonkers. So there's sheer madness inside the cabin. As flight 5390 plunged out of control...
00:36:07
Jeff Rogers
Through some of the busiest airspace in Britain, two more flight attendants, Simon Rogers and John Heward, fought their way into the cockpit. Heward stamped on the cockpit door, breaking it in half and freeing the throttles, and then stepped in alongside Nigel Ogden and grasped Captain Lancaster's legs, because by now Nigel was suffering from frostbite and his arms felt as though they would pop out of their sockets.
00:36:31
Jeff Rogers
Unable to hold on any longer, he stepped back and let Rogers and Heward take over. The two men untangled Lancaster's legs from the column from the control column and placed them over the back of captain the captain's seat, holding him more firmly in place and helping Atchison recover the control of the plane.
00:36:48
Jeff Rogers
Still making desperate mayday calls, he continued ah descent in a more controlled manner in order to reach breathable airspace and steer clear of other planes. This particular aircraft did not have oxygen for everybody on board.
00:37:03
Jeff Rogers
Atchison knew this, so he had to descend to an altitude where people wouldn't start starving for oxygen. So upon reaching a lower altitude, Atchison started to slow down and level out the plane. Are there still planes that exist that don't have oxygen for everyone? I do not know the answer. Isn't that crazy?
00:37:23
Jeff Rogers
But, yeah. Upon reaching lower altitude, Atchison started to slow down and level out. As he did, Captain Lancaster's body slid around to the left side of the cockpit. Okay.
00:37:36
Jeff Rogers
leaving his bloodied and battered face plastered against the window. So now all the people in the cockpit, because Lancaster has flipped around, he's no longer laying on his back, he's laying on his stomach and his face is like against the window so they can see his face, right?
00:37:53
Jeff Rogers
But one look through the window at Lancaster told him that Captain Lancaster was probably already gone. His eyes were wide open, totally unblinking, and his skin was turning gray.
00:38:05
Jeff Rogers
Also, the frostbite was setting in. Someone suggested that they let go of his body because obviously he had already passed away. But Nigel Ogden, the flight attendant, shot down that suggestion on principle, and Atchison agreed, pointing out that his body could strike the wing wings of the plane or the engines.
00:38:24
Jeff Rogers
Not to mention that, I mean... And this could damage the plane. Well, I mean, it's a human. Like, bring his body back. like And so they continued to hold on for dear life.
00:38:36
Jeff Rogers
Nigel left the cockpit to recover from his encounter with freezing 375 mile per hour winds and sat down with the flight attendant, Sue Prince, who had been tending to the terrified passengers. He told Sue in front of one of the passengers, I think the captain's dead.
00:38:54
Jeff Rogers
This shocked her because moments before it was Captain Lancaster who had said the weather in Malaga is going to be 80 degrees and sunny or whatever, and now he's possibly dead. Not in 80 degree weather.
00:39:07
Jeff Rogers
Right. With the plane slower to a reasonable speed, the wind noise reduced enough for the first officer, Acheson, to talk to air traffic control. The controller suggested an emergency landing in Southampton, the closest available airport.
00:39:21
Jeff Rogers
This put Acheson in a tough position. He wasn't familiar with Southampton. He was flying a two-pilot jet by himself in an emergency, basically a tornado.
00:39:34
Jeff Rogers
And all of his charts and checklists and maps and stuff had been sucked out of the window. so people are important. Right. At first, he wrote requested to land at Gatwick instead, but quickly settled on Southampton, a decision he felt compelled to make because of the severity of the situation.
00:39:54
Jeff Rogers
He switched to the frequency for so for Southampton Airport and apprised the disbelieving controller of the situation, that there had been an explosive decompression.
00:40:05
Jeff Rogers
The controller asked if that was the only issue to which First Officer Atchison said that the captain was stuck half outside the plane and that he believed that the captain was dead.
00:40:16
Jeff Rogers
First Officer Atchison said, also, we need 2,500 meters to land this plane. The other problem was that the plane was also completely full of gas because it had just taken off. you know So like a wrong landing could make the plane explode.
00:40:35
Jeff Rogers
The air traffic controller replied back and said, you only have 1,800 meters max. To which Hatchison responded, roger that.
00:40:47
Jeff Rogers
So relying on the guidance of the controller with no charts and no captain to help him, Alistair Atchison guided flight 5390 down to a safe and controlled landing in Southampton at 8.55 a.m., moments after it had taken off.
00:41:02
Jeff Rogers
Much to the relief of all the passengers whose lives have flashed before their eyes only minutes earlier. All 81 passengers but disembarked without a single an injury while ambulances rushed to the aid of the beleaguered crew.
00:41:17
Jeff Rogers
Paramedics found Ogden, Rogers, Heward, and Atchison suffered from minor injuries only ranging from frostbite to shock or to a dislocated shoulder.
00:41:28
Jeff Rogers
There was little hope for Captain Lancaster, who had been pinned to the outside of the plane amid 372 mile-per-hour winds and temperatures as low as one degree Fahrenheit.
00:41:40
Jeff Rogers
However, it's going to be okay right as paramedics removed his body from the plane, he started to show signs of life. Within a few minutes, he opened his eyes, regained consciousness, and appeared to be
00:41:53
Jeff Rogers
Tim Lancaster suffered little more than frostbite, bruising, a few relatively minor bone fractures, and a broken thumb.
00:42:00
Jeff Rogers
so captain lancaster remembers being like a loud boom and being sucked out of the plane and then his memory fades until he is on the stretcher and the ambulance and then he remembers that he went out again and woke up in southampton hospital that those were his memories the interview was with him last night that i watched amazing that's fucking crazy Police located the blown-off windscreen panel and many of the 90 screws used to secure it.
00:42:33
Jeff Rogers
Investigators determined that when this windscreen or windshield was installed 27 hours before the flight, 84 of the screws were used. They were 0.026 inches too small, and the remaining six, while they were the correct diameter,
00:42:50
Jeff Rogers
They were 0.1 inches too short. The previous windscreen had also been fitted using incorrect screws, which were replaced by the shift maintenance manager on a like-for-like basis without reference to maintenance documentation as the plane was due to depart shortly.
00:43:04
Jeff Rogers
Sounds like a bomb-ass lawsuit to me. The undersized screws were unable to withstand the force due to the air pressure difference between the cabin and the outside atmosphere during the flight.
00:43:16
Jeff Rogers
The windscreen was not... of the plug type lifted from the inside that that the so that the cabin pressure helps to hold it in place, but the type fitted from the outside so that the pressure tends to dislodge it.
00:43:30
Jeff Rogers
Investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch found that the shift maintenance manager responsible for installing the incorrect screws had failed to follow British Airways policy.
00:43:41
Jeff Rogers
They recommended that the staff that any staff with prescription eyeglasses should be required to wear those prescription eyeglasses when undertaking maintenance tasks. he didn't have his readers on.
00:43:55
Jeff Rogers
ah guarantee you, so he couldn't see what kind of screw it was. And he put the wrong ones in. Isn't that insane? They also faulted the policies themselves, and which should have required testing or verification by another individual for this critical task.
00:44:11
Jeff Rogers
Finally, they found the local Birmingham airport management response responsible for not directly monitoring the shift maintenance managers' work practices. As for what happened to the people on board British Airways Flight 5390 that day, First Officer Alistair Atchison left British Airways shortly after the accident and joined Channel Express, later rebranded as Jet 2, your Jet 2 holiday, until he made his last commercial flight on a Boeing 737 from Alicante to Manchester on the day of his 65th birthday 2015.
00:44:48
Jeff Rogers
and twenty fifteen Nope, I think I'd switch to driving trains. Nigel Ogden, the flight attendant who was the first to grab onto Captain Lancaster, returned to work but subsequently suffered from PTSD and retired in 2001 on the grounds of ill health.
00:45:02
Jeff Rogers
As of 2005, he was working as the night watchman at a Salvation Army hospital. Captain Lancaster returned to work after fewer than five months.
00:45:13
Jeff Rogers
He left British Airways in 2003 and flew with EasyJet until he retired from commercial piloting in 2008.
00:45:21
Jeff Rogers
First Officer Alistair Atchison and cabin crew members Susan Givens Nigel Ogden were awarded the Queen's Commendation for valuable service in the air. um That's a very specific award.
00:45:33
Jeff Rogers
Yeah, right? Atchison was also awarded the 1992 Polaris Award for outstanding airmanship. He saved all those fucking people. And because of the life-saving efforts efforts of First Officer Alistair Atchison, that is the incredible survival story of Captain Tim Lancaster and the 86 other people on British flight 5390.
00:45:54
Jeff Rogers
fifty three ninety Is there a way to get to Egypt without going on a plane?
00:46:01
Jeff Rogers
That's a great question. Because I want to do that. It comes down to people not wearing, like he wasn't wearing his reading glasses. And he put in the wrong screws.
00:46:13
Jeff Rogers
I'm so unhappy right now. I mean, that's great. I'm so glad that Lancaster's alive and they didn't just decide to dump his maybe dead body out the plane, right? But come on.
00:46:25
Jeff Rogers
hate plane problems. They all survived. It's fine. It's fine. Do you know who didn't survive? The people in the other plane crash in Peru? Oh, the alive?
00:46:36
Jeff Rogers
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Do you know? Okay. The last... Do I want to know? My very first trip to Norway... Back in the early 90s, and I don't remember the year, but it's when Alive was out in the theaters.
00:46:54
Jeff Rogers
Okay, I think it was like 92, 93. ninety three The night before I flew home the next day. Those fuckers took me to see Alive. and So on the 15 years old, on the plane, I was like, what?
00:47:09
Jeff Rogers
No, no, not on the plane. In the movie theater. I was like, what the fuck are we watching? What is this? I'm going to die. And then that's when I took the flight home and the captain of the plane said, ladies and gentlemen, if you look out your right window, you'll see Nova Scotia. 15 year old Jeff thought Nova Scotia was in Russia.
00:47:26
Jeff Rogers
and I was like, oh shit. Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. I mean, I'm real bad at geography, but even I know that's not Russia. My 15-year-old Jeff did not.
00:47:38
Jeff Rogers
Oh, my God. Okay. That was a good one. Oh, it was terrifying. My heart's racing. You were tired. You made it. You made it through. yeah out of sheer terror.
00:47:50
Jeff Rogers
And that is really crap it for today. Thank you for listening. We really appreciate that. Yeah. We can't, we, so imperfectly perfect, our little show. We really do thank you for listening. And that is why we're a vortex of fuckery. Yeah, here's the deal. we're not going to change. I think that this episode and all of your like blurt moments, your meat morphs, are going to go in the Hall of Flames.
00:48:16
Jeff Rogers
That was kind of fabulous, wasn't it? That's great. All right. We're here for a good time. Not a long time. Have a good one. Bye.