A pilot on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 has opened up about the terrifying moment the plane lost a door panel mid-flight.
First Officer Emily Wiprud was flying the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft between Portland, Oregon, and Ontario, California, on January 5.
The flight - which had 171 passengers and six crew members on board - turned into a nightmare when a section of the plane blew out mid-flight, reportedly sucking out passengers' belongings.
The alarming mid-air blowout occurred six minutes after taking off when the aircraft was 16,000 feet in the air.
In her first public interview with CBS News since the terrifying incident, Wiprud said she knew something was seriously wrong as flight 1282 made its way out of Portland.
“The first indication was an explosion in my ears and then a whoosh of air,” Wiprud told the outlet. “My body was forced forward and there was a loud bang as well... The flight deck door was open. I saw tubes hanging from the cabin.”
In the chaos, the Boeing jet lost a large panel, the pilot's headset flew out of the aircraft, as well as some of the passengers’ phones.
Wiprud explained how she immediately worked alongside the captain to make a miraculous emergency landing in Portland. "I didn't know that there was a hole in the airplane until we landed. I knew something was catastrophically wrong," she revealed.
The frightened pilot recalled looking down the aisle of the plane and seeing rows of passengers staring back at her.
“I opened the flight deck door and I saw calm, quiet, hundreds of eyes staring right back at me,” she told the outlet.
She asked the flight attendants if they were OK, and the crew members reported that they were fine but added that there were "empty seats and injuries," leading Wiprud to fear that she had lost passengers, but thankfully that turned out not to be the case.
One passenger, who was a teen, had his t-shirt torn from his body during the sudden decompression. The pilot recounted seeing the boy's mother frantically searching for him after the plane finally landed.
"She looked back and her son was gone. As a mother myself, I can't even imagine that feeling," Wiprud, who has two young children herself, said. Luckily, the teen moved to another seat after being in the same row where the door panel had blown out.
A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board revealed that four key bolts that were meant to hold the door plug in place were missing from the aircraft, as reported by CBS News.
In addition to this, investigations were also launched by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Justice, and the FBI, and they wrote to passengers that they may have been "victim(s) of a crime." Boeing has said it will cooperate fully.
According to The New York Post, three travelers have filed a lawsuit against the airline and Boeing for $1 billion, claiming that both parties ignored clear warning signs and that the plane should have never taken off.
Wiprud and her captain were named recipients of the 2023 Air Line Pilots Association Superior Airmanship in recognition of the skill and professionalism they displayed during the incident.
"My captain is a hero. Same with the flight attendants, same with all the personnel that was there to support us that day and that should be celebrated. Everybody survived," Wiprud said.
Air Line Pilots Association president Captain Jason Ambros said it was the quick thinking by airline staff that made all the difference.
"The most important safety device on any aircraft is two well-trained, qualified and rested pilots...This crew instinctually put their training in place and executed just flawlessly," he added, as cited by Daily Mail.
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