British Airways Flight 5390

FS2004 - Blowout (British Airways Flight 5390)
This happened back in 1990. It's quite a story.

How did this happen? The air pressure at sea level is about 15 PSI. Airliners are pressurized to 11 PSI* which is equivalent to being at about 7,000 feet of altitude. Air pressure at 17,000 feet is about 7 PSI, which means there is a difference of 4 PSI. I don't know the dimensions of the windshield, but let's say it was two feet wide and a foot and a half tall. That means it has an area or 3 square feet or 432 square inches. Multiply that by 4 and you have 1700 pounds of pressure pushing on that windshield. No wonder airliner windows are so small.

I have heard about this before. Several sites have the story, including Wikipedia.

Via Posthip Scott.

*PSI stands for Pounds per Square Inch