Can anyone think instances when an AC has been push beyond it's limits or
has done things it was never supposed too?

From "Air Force" magazine V83 N4:

"At Da Nang, a civilian airlift began, presaging the later confusion and terror
at Saigon. Edward J. Daly, president of World Airways, defied US Ambassador
Graham A. Martin and dispatched two Boeing 727s to Da Nang, flying on the first
one himself. After landing, his airplane was mobbed by thousands of people,
some 270 of whom were finally jammed on board. (All but a handful of these were
armed soldiers-not the civilians that Daly had intended to evacuate.) The 727
took off amid gunfire and a grenade explosion that damaged the flaps. It hit a
fence and a vehicle before staggering into the air. People had crowded into the
wheel well, and one man was crushed as the gear came up and jammed.

"Somehow the 727 made it back to Saigon, gear down and with split flaps,
managing to land safely. The dreadful photos of the dead man's feet hanging
from the gear doors told the miserable story. Ironically the one man's death
saved four others who had also climbed into the wheel well, for his crushed
body had prevented the gear from retracting all the way. Later, when the
details of the overweight and damage-laden takeoff were sent to Boeing for
analysis, the response was that the 727 should not have been able to fly."


Chris Mark