An Alaska Airlines airplane and a Hawaiian Airlines airplane at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in Los Angeles, California, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. Alaska Air Group Inc. agreed to buy rival Hawaiian Holdings Inc. for $1.9 billion in cash and debt. Photographer: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Roomies, imagine being on a plane, and during the flight, a chunk of the aircraft blows out 16,000 feet in the air!
That’s what 180 passengers endured on Friday (January 5) when an Alaska Airlines plane made its journey from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California.
The high altitude conditions outside exposed the passengers when a window in the cabin spontaneously dislodged, creating a startling scene.
The depressurization of the aircraft forced the Boeing 737-9 fleet to make an emergency landing just six minutes after takeoff, per CBS News.
The pilots were able to safely guide the aircraft toward the nearest airport, skillfully handling the sudden change in cabin pressure. Not to mention any other potential technical complications that could have arisen from such an occurrence.
While Alaska Airlines has since given a statement, saying the plane “experienced an incident,” they did not immediately disclose a possible cause behind the the terrifying circumstance.
The airline expressed deep regret over the unfortunate incident. They assured passengers and the public that it places utmost importance on safety and would leave no errors in probing this matter.
The company announced that they grounded all 65 of their Boeing MAX-9 aircrafts and expected them to undergo evaluation for safety inspections.
Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said that they would only return the planes for commercial use once they had completed the maintenance service.
“I am personally committed to doing everything we can to conduct this review in a timely and transparent way,” he added. “We are working with Boeing and regulators to understand what occurred tonight, and will share updates as more information is available.”
By Saturday (January 6), the Alaska Airlines’ X page had updated its followers to make it known it had inspected over a quarter of aircrafts “with no concerning findings” so far.
“Aircraft will return to service as their inspections are completed with our full confidence,” the tweet read.
Meanwhile, over on TikTok, passengers on the Boeing 737-9 flight began to share moments after the Alaska Airlines aircraft window blew out and they had to put on oxygen masks.
One video that has already gone viral on the social media platform shows passengers calmly and collectedly adjusting their masks and preparing for landing.
In another video that @strawberr.vy shared, the TikTok content creator stated that the window seat was unoccupied at the time of the incident.
