Alaska Airlines midair horror sparks warning to parents travelling with babies
The terrifying Alaska Airline's midair blowout has sparked an urgent warning to parents travelling with babies to not hold their infants on their laps while flying.
171 passengers and six flight crew members onboard the Boeing 737 Max 9 miraculously survived when the door plug broke off at 16,000ft, creating a vacuum that twisted the metal of the seats nearby, and snatched mobile phones, headsets, and even the shirt off the teenager’s back.
The items were later discovered on the side of the roads and in the gardens of Portland residents after they fell thousands of feet. The pilots of flight 1282 were able to return to Portland, Oregon, and make a safe emergency landing. No serious injuries were reported.
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Passengers near the damage on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 flight (AP)“We knew something was wrong,” terrified passenger Kelly Bartlett Bartlett said on Monday. “We didn’t know what. We didn’t know how serious. We didn’t know if it meant we were going to crash.”
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Experts believe it could have ended in tragedy had the plane not just taken off and the seatbelt sign was not on. There were three passengers aboard the Boeing 737 who were not wearing seatbelts, according to National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy. She revealed at a press conference: “On the plane were three babies held in the laps of caregivers."
Although babies under the age of 2 can fly for free and do not require a separate plane ticket to the US, they can be held in the lap of a parent or guardian. However, this can be dangerous as the only thing that keeps them in place is the parent's arms.
Kwasi Adjekum, an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota’s Department of Aviation, told the Washington Post had a passenger had been holding a child close to where the door plug broke off, it could have been devastating.
A door-sized section near the rear of the Boeing 737-9 MAX plane blew off 10 minutes after takeoff (Getty Images)He said: “If there had been a passenger holding a kid close to where that panel blew off, the explosive force was such that a kid being held would have been torn from the hands of their parents, and they would have been sucked out the plane."
Ms Hoendy admitted the flight attendants were immediately concerned about the three babies and the four unaccompanied children who were on the plane. Parents are now being urged to put their children under 2 in their own seats in a Federal Aviation Administration-approved carrier so they are safe.
“The NTSB has long recommended and the Federal Aviation Administration has long recommended and Alaska Airlines on their website also recommends for caregivers or those accompanying infants under the age of 2 to purchase a seat for that infant and to put them in their own car seat and to strap them in to ensure safety,” she said.
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