A plane bound for California made an emergency landing in Portland after part of the plane’s cabin exploded mid-flight.
The plane, a 65 Boeing 737-9, had just taken off for Ontario, Calif., from Portland, Oregon, when it “experienced an incident,” according to an Alaska Airlines press release Friday.
Photos and video of the trip, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, obtained by Portland news outlet KPTV, show a large portion of the plane’s fuselage missing, at one point with the night sky visible through an opening in the cabin, as well as passengers wearing oxygen masks .
“Part of the plane took off not even 20 minutes before our flight??” wrote one passenger via a clip from the flight that he shared with the outlet.
“Everyone on the plane is fine,” she wrote in a later part of the video, adding, “Luckily no one was sitting next to” the part that flew away.
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The plane originally took off from Portland International Airport around 4:40 p.m. local time and returned less than an hour later, KPTV reported.
Passenger Diego Murillo told the BBC the hole left in the plane was “as wide as a refrigerator”, while another, Jessica Montoia, called the flight “a trip from hell”.
Recalling the moment when part of the plane exploded, passenger Evan Smith told the outlet, “There was a really loud bang toward the left rear of the plane and a noise,” adding that “all the air masks went down” afterward.
Smith also claimed there was a young passenger whose shirt was “sucked off him and thrown off the plane” and the child’s mom “held him down to make sure he didn’t leave with her.”
“Part of the plane was missing and the wind was just extremely loud,” passenger Elizabeth Lee told the BBC.
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According to Alaska Airlines, “this type of event is rare” and they are currently “investigating what happened.”
Hours after a California-bound flight made an emergency landing, Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci revealed that all of the airline’s Boeing 737-9s would be temporarily grounded for inspection.
“Following tonight’s event on Flight 1282, we have decided to take the precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft,” Minicucci said in a statement. “Each aircraft will be returned to service only after full maintenance and safety inspections have been completed. We expect all inspections to be completed in the next few days.”
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Minicucci reiterated the airline’s earlier statement that they were investigating what happened, saying the process was being conducted jointly with Boeing and the National Transportation Safety Board. He also said his “heart goes out to those who were on this flight.”
“I am so sorry for what you experienced,” the CEO wrote. “I am so grateful for the response from our pilots and flight attendants. We have teams on the ground in Portland assisting passengers and working to support guests traveling for days ahead.”
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