THIS week in 1988, the Adver’s most spectacular front page picture wasn’t remotely local.

Having said that, the same was true of just about every newspaper in the world apart from those in Hawaii.

Thanks to the internet, the image of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 with part of its roof torn off is familiar to people not even thought of in those days, let alone born.

Back then, it was new and miraculous.

We wrote on the Friday: “A mid-air explosion over Hawaii ripped a gaping hole in the fuselage of this jetliner today, injuring 59 of the 95 people on board.

“The mystery explosion at the front of the Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 forced a dramatic emergency landing en route from Hilo in Hawaii to capital Honolulu.”

It would shortly be revealed that a crack in the fuselage was probably the culprit. There was only one fatality, a veteran flight attendant called Clarabelle Lansing, who was sucked from the aircraft and never found.

We carried two other aviation stories that week, both of them anything but tragic.

One featured a 20ft model of aircraft carrier Illustrious, which was among the items housed near Swindon.

The Adver revealed: “Navy top brass have been inspecting model ships before they go on a nationwide tour.

“The Second Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Richard Fitch, and the director of naval recruiting, Capt David Hart-Dyke, inspected the models and information at the Royal Navy Air Yard at Wroughton.”

Students of military history might recognise the name of Capt Hart-Dyke, who commanded the doomed HMS Coventry during the Falklands War.

Students of TV trivia, meanwhile, might recognise the name as Miranda Hart’s dad.

We also paid a visit to RAF Lyneham, where one of the aircraft moved a long way but failed to take off. As the engines were silent and the power was provided by 80 people with a pair of stout ropes, this was understandable, but the effort was still magnificent.

“The 40-ton plane,” we said, “was hauled 1,000 feet down the runway at RAF Lyneham by a squadron aiming to raise money for a new minibus.

“Eighty members of Swindon Air Training Corps Squadron, based at Upham Road, were hoping to raise about £2,500 to buy the minibus which could take them on expeditions and to other fund-raising activities.

“The squadron members were sponsored for every 10 feet they managed to pull the giant Hercules.”

A heroic effort of a very different kind was made by an art teacher called Ian Humphreys, who lived in Redcliffe Street.

Mr Humphreys, some colleagues and students were in the Cornish village of Porthallow, nearing the end of a field trip.

The college personnel, including lecturer Tommy McMahon, were relaxing in a bar when someone said there was a fire in a nearby house.

We wrote: “Mr Humphreys dashed outside, saw 67-year-old Peggy Jewell trapped at an upstairs window and scaled the wall to help her.

“He smashed the window open, hauled the semi-conscious woman through it and dropped her into the arms of Mr McMahon standing below.”

Mr Humphreys told us: “People were waiting at the bottom of the house, looking for a ladder, but I could see the woman needed help straight away.

“I could see her calling out through the smoke so I just ran as fast as I could at the wall, climbed on to the bottom window ledge and hauled myself on to the upstairs one.”

As is often the case with heroes, the teacher insisted he was no such thing.

On a lighter note, the week saw the publication by the county’s library and museum service of a book called Dialect in Wiltshire.

We sent a reporter to test the people of Swindon – and found that hardly any of them knew more than one or two of the definitions.

The words in question included ‘want’ (a mole of the burrowing variety), ‘grain’ (the prong of a fork), ‘chibbles’ (spring onions), ‘mommet’ and ‘udmedend’ (scarecrow), ‘rafty’ (bacon that’s gone bad), ‘emmett’ (ant), ‘evet’ (newt) and ‘quilter’ (windpipe).

The staff of the old railway museum in Faringdon Road, meanwhile, were celebrating the return of several pieces of Swindon railway history.

The items were nameplates from 19th Century locos including The Great Bear, Bulldog, Sultan and Camel, which had previously been at the National Railway Museum in York.

We noted: “The name plates, once offered to rail workers for £25 in the late 1960s, have now soared in value to about £5,000 each.”

These days another zero could be added to the price of the most desirable plates.

IN OTHER NEWS...

MONDAY, APRIL 25: “BONES of a cow were among items found by a team of 10 volunteer spring cleaners who spent Saturday morning cleaning up Greendown Copse, a popular spot for walkers in Grange Park, West Swindon. In a short time they filled a skip full of rubbish. Local Thamesdown councillor Bob Pixton, who spearheaded the clean-up, thought he may have uncovered human remains when he found the bones. ‘Some were lying in the ground and some were in a plastic bag,’ he said. ‘We didn’t know what they were, so we called the police and they told us they were from a cow.’”

TUESDAY, APRIL 26: “COUNCILLORS are at loggerheads over claims that elderly people are being packed into private residential homes. Planners in Swindon have refused to allow a house in County Road to be converted into a home for 13 old folk until assurances are received from the applicant. At last night’s meeting of Thamesdown Planning Committee, Coun Les Gowing (Lab, Whitworth) said old folk were being forced into whatever accommodation was available.”

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27: “A FACTORY faced the first strike in its nine-year history in a dispute over job cuts. Almost all blue-collar workers at the Anchor Foods plant in Blagrove, Swindon, walked out yesterday afternoon. They claim the management will give them a pay rise only if 12 jobs are lost. The official one-day strike is expected to continue until late this afternoon. A group of pickets, including non-union members, was outside the gates last night.”

THURSDAY, APRIL 28: “A MYSTERY woman in black using a phoney excuse to enter pensioners’ homes is being sought by puzzled police. She asks if she can use the old people’s telephones, claiming local call boxes are out of order – but they are not. The motive of the young woman, dressed entirely in black, is foxing Swindon police. She has not committed any criminal offence and they want to know what she is up to. The woman is aged about 20, around 5ft4ins tall and was wearing a black leather jacket, black shirt and black stockings.”

FRIDAY, APRIL 29: “A PUB quiz team has celebrated its success in a national competition. The team from the Iron Horse pub in Wroughton were runners-up in the Whitbread Flowers League after beating more than 500 teams from the south. They almost came out on top after a series of contests but narrowly missed the national title when they came up against a team from Hereford. Landlord John Somers said: ‘We have been involved in the competitions for four years and this is the best we have done.’”