Passengers who were aboard what was described as a “trip from hell” on Friday when a side panel broke off a Boeing 737-9 Max during a Southern California-bound flight are sharing their harrowing experience as aviation officials look into the malfunction.
“One of the guys that was there, his shirt was sucked out and his phone was sucked out,” said Jessica Montoya, who was seated about four rows from where a side panel blew out of the plane.
Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was headed to Ontario, Calif. from Portland and was about 16,000 feet in the air when the incident happened a mere 10 minutes after departure.
“And then I looked to my left and there’s this huge chunk, part of the airplane just missing,” said Elizabeth Le, who was seated about two rows from the missing side panel. “I just couldn’t believe my eyes like, there’s the gaping hole and you could see the city and the stars and everything just outside of the window.”
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
In a message to air traffic control, the flight crew urgently told operators it needed to make an emergency landing.
“We just depressurized. We’re declaring an emergency. We do need to descend down to 10,000 (feet),” the message said.
Around 5:30 p.m. Friday, the two pilots were able to land back at Portland International Airport safely. According to National Transportation Safety Board Chair, Jennifer Homendy, no serious injuries were reported by the 171 passengers or six crew members.
“With that said, I imagine this was a pretty terrifying event,” Homendy said in a press conference Saturday. “We don’t often talk about psychological injury but I’m sure that occurred here so on behalf of the National Transportation Safety Board, I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to those who experienced what I imagine was truly terrifying.”
“As soon as we landed, the paramedics were in, the fire department was in, checking who was injured,” Montoya said. “It was a trip from hell.”
Homendy added that the door plug was located near seats 26A and 26B, which were luckily empty.
“On 26A and 25A, the headrests are gone,” the NTSB chair said. “On 26A, part of the seat, the back of the seat is gone. There are some clothing items in the area. We can see that the stop portions of the door are still intact on the door.”
It remains unclear what caused the door plug to break off. While the incident remains under investigation by federal authorities, some Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners remain grounded until they are inspected.
