Passengers on an Alaska Airlines flight that was forced to make an emergency landing when part of the fuselage fell off midair said the ordeal was loud and terrifying.
Evan Granger, a passenger seated in exit row seat 16F, said he heard a “loud boom” followed by “a gust of wind coming in” at about 20 minutes into the flight on Friday. He said both of his ears became plugged.
“I didn’t want to look back to see what was happening,” Granger told NBC News. “My focus in that moment was just breathe into the oxygen mask and trust that the flight crew will do everything they can to keep us safe.”
Granger acknowledged “there are so many things that had to go right in order for all of us to have survived,” adding that he is “very grateful” that they were able to land safely.
Elizabeth Le of Portland, Oregon, said the flight was about 20 minutes into its route from Portland to Ontario, California, on Friday when she heard a loud noise.
“All of a sudden I heard like a big bang and I didn’t know exactly what was going on, but I look up and the oxygen masks were hanging from the ceiling,” Le told Southern California news outlet OC Hawk. “And then I look to my left and there’s this huge chunk, part of the airplane is like missing.”
Le said “extremely loud” wind rushed into the plane, but passengers stayed in their seats and kept their seatbelts on.
“I couldn’t really think straight because of how loud the wind was,” she said.
She added: “I just couldn’t believe my eyes. There’s a gaping hole. You could see the city and the stars and everything just outside of the window. It was crazy.”
Le said no one was sitting in the window seat of the row directly next to where the part of the plane fell off, but a mom and son were in the middle and aisle seats of that row.
Le said she heard afterward that the mom had to hold her teenage son tightly to keep him from being sucked out of the plane, adding that his shirt had flown off and he…
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