On 28 April 1988 a high-cycle Aloha Airlines Boeing 737-200 cruising at 24,000 ft. over Hawaii suddenly lost an entire upper fuselage section.

Pilots at the controls of the damaged aircraft told federal investigators of a sudden whooshing sound at 24,000 ft., flying debris in the cockpit, a bouncing 25-mi. descent with one engine out and a vibrating yoke to an emergency landing at Kahului on the island of Maui. Sixty-nine of the 95 passengers sustained injuries from flailing wires, metal strips and wind burn. A flight attendant was the only fatality, swept out of the aircraft during the sudden decompression when the top half of the body section tore off the fuselage. The incident refocused attention on aging aircraft, an issue that has drawn considerable attention in the airframe industry in recent years.

The Aloha aircraft was subject to the particularly arduous operating environment typical of interisland carriers in its 19-year lifetime. With stage lengths of 20 - 40 min., the aircraft accumulated 88,000 takeoff and landing cycles. This intensive use also inflicts the loads associated with repeated pressurization and depressurization. At 23,000 ft. the cabin would be pressurized to 8,000 ft., creating a differential of 5 psi. In addition, the Hawaiian carriers fly interisland in an environment that is conducive to corrosion.