Passengers onboard a small Boutique Airlines plane have recounted the horrific moment an emergency exit door flew off just moments before take-off.
The incident took place on an eight-seater plane at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport on May 3.
In an interview with WUPM, a passenger named Tom Yon said: "We were just about to take off probably going, I don’t know 100 miles per hour. A loud bang and the door flew off and the noise and the wind and everything.
"I didn't even see my bag get sucked out of the plane. I got it right here, this bag right here, got sucked right out of the plane. They gave it to me about an hour after take-off."
Thankfully, no one was injured as a result of the incident, but Yon stresses that it was an unsettling experience regardless - and it could have ended in tragedy.
He said: "It was scary. If there would have been a person sitting on the plane with a baby on their lap, I don't know what would have happened."
A second passenger, Mike Parra, told KBJR 6: "It happened so fast, and it was so unusual, we're all looking at each other like 'did that just really happen?'"
Parra added that his daughter could have been injured, saying: "I'm sitting there looking at my daughter hanging out this door. Except for the safety strap, she would’ve been on the floor'."
The incident has now been assessed by Metropolitan Airports Commission officials, who said that the flight did not take off and returned to its gate at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.
The plane door was subsequently recovered as was Yon's bag.
The interior of a small Boutique Airplane is pictured below.
KBJR6 reports that passengers and county board members expressed their anger at a lack of immediate action from Boutique Airlines.
"The fact that they can't just call your company or that your company doesn't step up to the line and say this is the right thing to do, we need to take care of these people," County Board member Brandon Snyder said.
On Monday, May 10, the San Fransisco-based airline claimed that an incident like this has never occurred before.
Company representatives said that the two pilots on board failed to complete the necessary pre-flight checks, and they have now been placed on leave pending an investigation.
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