08 January 2024 , 11:07
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The door of the Alaska Airlines plane which was torn off in mid-air has been found in a school teacher’s back garden.
Bob, the teacher, found the missing Boeing 737 Max 9 fuselage door plug in his Portland garden after it blew off at 16,000 feet high for reasons as-yet unclear, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The board had put out a public call for help in searching for the door, which NTSB head Jennifer Homendy said would be a vital clue in understanding how it was blown off.
Over 170 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircrafts were grounded after the incident as inspections were carried out to ascertain the cause of the major malfunction. 200 Alaska Airline flights were also cancelled as a result, with cancellations set to continue through the week.
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A TikTok video of the chaos showed the hole mid-flight (Elizabeth/CBS news)
Passengers were given oxygen masks to help with the depressurised cabin (UKNIP)It has emerged that the aircraft used for the flight had been banned from long-distance flights over water after warning lights for cabin pressure had illuminated on three previous flights. Reports suggest pilots noted the flashing warning lights, but Alaska Airlines said the issues were resolved “per approved maintenance procedures”.
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The plane had therefore been restricted from long-flights over water and yet it was still permitted to fly - leading to the incident after take-off on the California-bound flight from Portland, Oregon. Boeing is set to hold a company-wide safety meeting led by its CEO on Tuesday.
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After taking off at 4:40pm on Friday, passengers were frightened for their lives when a large section of the plane blew out mid-air leaving a gaping hole in the side of the plane. Phones were sucked out of the plane while one passenger had to be held in his seat by his mother and another child had his shirt torn off due to the depressurisation, Fox News affiliate KPTV reported.
Emma Vu, a passenger on the plane, shared on TikTok the messages she sent to her family during the incident where she thought she might die. “The masks are down. I am so scared right now. Please pray for me. Please I don't want to die,” she wrote in the frightening messages.
Vu had been asleep when she “felt the entire plane drop” she explained on TikTok. “The masks dropped, and people are screaming. I am so grateful for the ladies sat next to me... they were so sweet at calming me down, and the flight attendants were giving oxygen tanks to those who needed it more.”
A gaping hole blew out of the plane 20 minutes into the flight (kptv)
Cabin crew ensured those who needed oxygen masks the most were attended to first (UKNIP)Footage on TikTok shows the chaos as passengers use oxygen masks while the plane was in the air, with the gaping hole visible in the video just feet from where people sat. Nicholas Hoch said he heard a “big boom” before the oxygen masks dropped. "That was followed instantaneously by a rapid depressurisation of the cabin that consisted of moisture and fluid - almost like a cloud rushing from the front of the plane to the back," he said to Sky News.
The passengers were not warned of the emergency landing at the time. But audio from inside the cockpit hears the pilot radioing in with: “Portland approach, Alaska 1282 emergency! Aircraft is now levelling 12,000 in a left turn heading three four zero.” Another air traffic control audio recording revealed a member of staff saying: “Yes we are an emergency. We are depressurised, we do need to return back to... we have 177 passengers.” No casualties have been reported from the passengers.