Mid-Air Explosion: Alaska Airlines Crew’s Terrifying Ordeal

United States – Alaska Airlines (ALK. N) flight attendants thought passengers had been sucked out of the aircraft in the confusion after the January 5 mid-air panel explosion aboard a Boeing (BA. N) 737 MAX 9 plane, newly released testimony showed on Tuesday.

Flight Attendants’ Recollections

Some of the comments extracted from the interview with the attendants, who were not identified, were among thousands of page documents released for the public prior to a two-day investigation hearing initiated by the U. S. National Transportation Safety Board on the occurrence. They relay the thrilling stories of the rescue efforts of the cabin crew and their ability to contact pilots when the panel flew off the jet mid-air at 16000 feet after it departed from Portland, Oregon, as reported by Reuters.

Speaking to Learning from the Field, a flight attendant with 20 years of experience told what happened: “I said there is a hole in the plane, in the back of the plane, and I’m sure we’ve lost passengers,” added the experienced flight attendant who witnessed the hole in the plane and five empty seats.

Suddenly, the attendant realized that there was an unattended child near the rear part of the plane. “All I could think of was that he was sitting there, and he was too small to reach the mask and probably really scared.”

The NTSB is looking into the manufacturing of the 737 and the FAA’s oversight and inspections of it with the aim of making suggestions that can stop something like this from happening in the future. The event has now escalated to become a major financial and image disaster for the aircraft manufacturing company Boeing.

Communication Breakdown and Fear

Pre-authorized flight attendants, who could not testify right after the crash, reported a loud noise, rushing airflow, and, for one of them, entangled oxygen masks.

“I think I was able to (blurt) out, ‘I think we have a hole and we might’ve lost passengers.’ And then it seemed like I just lost contact; I tried calling back, tried speaking loudly into the phone, I couldn’t hear anything,” said a second flight attendant with almost a decade of experience.

“Probably the scariest thing was I didn’t have exact communication with my flight deck, and at first, I didn’t know if the decompression was in the front, if we had pilots, and not being able to fully communicate with the back,” the flight attendant said.

Chaos and Damage Onboard

Both of the flight attendants spoke of wreckage to the plane and those on board, especially a shirtless teenager with a red face and neck. One chair was removed from the leather cover, fabric stuffing, upholstery, and headrest tray table through the force of the decompression, as reported by Reuters.

The second flight attendant said the pilots finally told them that they were going to land, “so I knew that we were going to be okay. ”