An Alaska Airlines flight made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport on Friday night after a section of the aircraft blew out in mid-air.

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, traveling from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, faced severe depressurization, causing the ejection of a large window section and an unoccupied seat.

The flight departed at 4:52 p.m., turned back around, and landed in Portland at 5:27 p.m.

One passenger on the plane told local media that a panel on the side of the plane blew out, taking one of the windows with it, causing rapid cabin decompression.

The horrifying incident reportedly resulted in a child’s shirt being ripped off.

Footage from the aircraft started trending on social media late Friday night.

Rawsalerts writes:

A Forced emergency landing was made of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 at Portland International Airport on Friday night. The flight, traveling from Portland to Ontario, California, faced severe depressurization, causing the ejection of a large window section and an unoccupied seat. This incident resulted in a child’s shirt being ripped off. The Boeing 737-900/-9MAX aircraft reached a maximum altitude of 16,300 ft before safely returning to Portland International Airport.

“More photos show the damage after the severe depressurization of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. The flight was operated by a Boeing 737-9 MAX, which rolled off the assembly line just two months ago and received certification in November 2023,” Rawsalerts noted.

Collin Rugg writes:

A piece of the wall on an Alaska Airlines flight popped off mid-flight as the plane was traveling from Portland to Ontario, California.

This is terrifying.

After about 35 minutes into the flight, the side panel of the plane came off, reportedly sucking out passengers’ belongings including phones.

A small child reportedly had to be held down so they weren’t sucked out.

The child, who was closest to the missing panel, lost his shirt and his skin turned red from the wind.

KGW 8 reports:

A video posted to TikTok by another passenger, Elizabeth, shows the aftermath, as the plane returns to Portland and lands at PDX. By that point, passengers appeared calm, although they were using oxygen masks.

“Everything was going fine until we heard a loud bang … a boom,” Elizabeth recalled. “I look up, and the air masks are popped down, and I look down to my left, and there’s a huge, gaping hole on the left side, where the window is.”

While people were shaken, no one was hurt, though a child’s shirt got pulled through the opening, she said. The child and the mother were sitting across the aisle when the panel blew out, and Elizabeth told KGW that she heard the mom had to drag her son back inside, his skin reddened by the wind.

Elizabeth was sitting two rows to the right behind where the window was, and recalled she could feel the air where she was.

“It was really loud; at first, I thought it was my ears popping … I had my noise-cancelling headphones on, so it did suppress most of the noise, thankfully,” she continued. “I’m glad everyone stayed calm, and everyone had their seatbelts on … so everyone was okay.”

“Following tonight’s event on Flight 1282, we have decided to take the precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft,” Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said.

“AS1282 from Portland to Ontario, CA experienced an incident this evening soon after departure. The aircraft landed safely back at Portland International Airport with 171 guests and 6 crew members. We are investigating what happened and will share more as it becomes available,” Alaska Airlines wrote.

From KPTV:

According to the Port of Portland, the fire department responded to the plane after it landed and treated minor injuries. There was one person taken from the scene for additional medical treatment. No serious injuries were reported.

Several people on board the flight, who wished not to be named, reported to us that the airplane’s oxygen masks deployed immediately after the depressurization, and multiple people used the masks as they waited for the plane to land at PDX.

A passenger named Diego Murillo told KPTV that Alaska Airlines rebooked them on an 11 p.m. flight out of PDX. But otherwise the airline had not told him anything about the incident.

Murillo said he and his family were preparing to reach their final destination around 2 a.m. Saturday.

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