You know when you’re on a plane and a piece of the fuselage flies off 20 minutes into your flight and you spend the next few moments contemplating how your life might end? No? Oh, is that because that kind of sh*t isn’t supposed to happen? Ever?
And yet it happened to passengers last Friday on an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California. According to NBC News, about 29 minutes into the flight, the passengers of Flight 1282 first heard a loud boom followed by an intense gust of wind as a piece of the fuselage flew off the plane when the aircraft reached 16,000 feet in the air.
The plane had 174 passengers and six crew members on board.
Luckily, no one was seriously injured, and the two seats next to the detached panel, 26A and 26B were empty, though the headrests on both of those seats and one of the tray tables flew out of the plane. The panel that flew off the plane is what is known as a door plug, a panel that is used to fill an unused doorway and outfitted with stop fittings that are placed to prevent the plug from dislodging. Or, you know, they’re supposed to.
@imsocorny 10 minutes into our flight we heard a loud bang and the oxygen masks dropped down. I was in the front and we had no idea what was happening at first, just that the plane depressurized extremely fast. So thankful for the amazing pilots that were able to safely land us! Alaska airlines has some explaining to do. #emergencylanding #portland #almostplanecrash #alaskaairlines
Here is the most frustrating (or scary) part — According to NPR, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed that a warning advisory light ignited on the plane at least three times on prior flights on December 7th of last year, and then on January 3rd and 4th, just days before the flight in question. The airline had placed a maintenance request for the light to be examined, but that request had yet to be fulfilled.
We’ve all ignored the check engine light on our car’s dashboard before but this is an airplane we’re dealing with here and the issue was big enough that the plane was previously restricted from being flown over water, so what’s going on Alaska Airlines?
@vee_wins Replying to @Kaleb D this was when the plane was turing around doing the emergency landing #alaskaair #fyp #alaskaairlines
Now that we know everyone is okay you might be wondering: well, what happened to the door plug?
Thankfully, the plug didn’t harm anyone on the ground, despite weighing 62 pounds and falling from 16,000 feet. ABC News reports that the door plug landed in the backyard of Portland science teacher Bob Sauer, who had heard news of the incident before discovering the plug in his backyard. Sauer, who wasn’t home at the time the plug landed in his yard, only searched for the debris after a friend called and suggested he look since authorities still hadn’t found the door. Once he checked his yard, Sauer was shocked and promptly alerted the NTSB of his findings.
NPR reports that since the incident the FAA has grounded over 171 models of the plane in question, the Boeing 737 Max 9, for immediate inspection. It’s going to be hard to fly Alaska and not think of this incident for at least the first few months of the year.