Alaska Airlines plane window ripped off mid-flight and forced to make emergency landing

The Independent

Alaska Airlines officials say they are investigating an incident involving one of their flights that flew out of Portland, Oregon on Friday. Photos shared with KTVU show a section of the blown-out plane.

Transcript

00:00 A plane headed from Portland to Ontario, California was forced to make an emergency landing after

00:06 a portion of the plane flew right off after they reached cruising altitude.

00:11 Good evening, I'm Jana Kaltiyama.

00:13 And I'm Christina Rendon.

00:14 Luckily, no one was hurt, but Newton I reporter Jeffrey Lindblom spoke with one passenger

00:18 who says the depressurization was so intense, phones flew out of the plane and a shirt was

00:23 pulled off of a child's body.

00:25 Flight crew on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 declaring an emergency as these photos show

00:35 the aircraft appearing to be missing a panel.

00:37 It was about as wide as a refrigerator and about as high as two thirds of a refrigerator

00:42 in height.

00:43 Evan Smith says he was among the 174 passengers aboard the flight heading to Ontario.

00:48 Says they just reached cruising altitude at around 10,000 feet as disaster struck.

00:53 There was a really loud bang towards the left rear of the plane and a whooshy noise and

00:58 all the air masks dropped.

01:04 Flight crew made the call to return to Portland while Smith says he looked back about six

01:07 rows and saw what he believes is a missing side panel in the aircraft.

01:16 Just kind of sit there.

01:17 It's not anything I have any control over and it's just wait and see what happens.

01:20 Smith says he spoke with another passenger who said they were a row behind where the

01:24 incident occurred.

01:25 And they said there was a kid in that row who his shirt was sucked off him and out of

01:30 the plane and his mother was holding on to him to make sure he didn't go with it.

01:34 He believes some cell phones and other items may have blown out too and he says it's fortunate

01:38 they weren't higher in the sky.

01:40 He also credits the cabin crew for doing what he calls a good job.

01:44 As he says he watched crew members help some women who were fearful move to a different

01:48 spot on the plane.

01:49 Portland tower, 12-8 crew, we're on the ILS to the last emergency aircraft.

01:53 It says something that those planes can take that kind of a hit and still go ahead and

01:58 land safely.

02:01 Alaska Airlines issued a statement in response to the incident saying in part the aircraft

02:05 landed safely back at Portland International Airport with 171 guests and six crew members.

02:11 The safety of our guests and employees is always a primary priority.

02:15 So while this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to

02:19 safely manage the situation.

02:21 And the National Transportation Safety Board released a statement saying quote NTSB is

02:26 investigating an event involving Alaska Airlines flight 1282.

02:30 We will post any updates regarding the investigation when they are available.

02:34 Of course you can find more information and details of the continuing incident online.

02:37 Just visit our website, KTVU.com.

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