On Friday, January 5, 2024, the 171 passengers on a domestic flight in the United States experienced a horrific experience. While they were traveling at an altitude of 5,000 meters, part of their aircraft flew away.
“I'm going to die”. This thought came to 22-year-old Vi Nguyen's mind as she sat in her Boeing 737 MAX on January 5th. What was supposed to be a routine two-hour flight ended up becoming a nightmare at an altitude of 5,000 meters. Twenty minutes of agony for 171 passengers in the face of emptiness.
Before we left, nothing had indicated such chaos. The device that would connect Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California was – literally – brand new. This new aircraft in the Alaska Airlines fleet only entered service in October 2023.
Aside from a slight takeoff delay caused by a rapid de-icing, Flight 1282 took off. Promptly at 5:06 p.m., the aircraft left the runway and began its slow climb toward cruising altitude.
A climb punctuated by minor warnings from the pilots about a drop in cabin pressure. Minor warnings? An emergency door suddenly detached from the device. In its place, a hole more than a meter wide was created, allowing a direct view into the void.
Explosion, panic “in silence”
What sound does it make when a door is torn off a plane at several hundred kilometers per hour? The New York Times was able to collect statements from dozens of participants. Some call it an “explosion”. Others heard nothing at all.
“I only noticed it when the oxygen masks were taken off,” recalls Kyle Rinker, one of the passengers interviewed by the American press.
Chaos and confusion quickly filled the cabin. Only the people in the background could see the situation with their own eyes. There is a lack of understanding at the front.
Plan of the Boeing 737 MAX 9, model of the January 5, 2024 accident in which a door was torn off in row number 26. – Sky Library – BFMTV
Nicholas Hoch, a passenger at the front of the plane, said he tried to remain calm as panic spread through the ranks. Without knowing what, he knew something was wrong. In a panic, he grabbed his phone to write one last message to his mother and girlfriend. “I love you”.
Afterward, he said that despite the situation, on the surface, everyone was “strangely calm.” Helpless, the passengers “silently panicked.”
“The first thing I thought was, 'I'm going to die,'” said Vi Nguyen, 22. At the fateful moment, this traveler grabbed her cell phone and filmed the scene.
“When you wake up from a nap on the plane and think there's turbulence… When part of the plane gets lost in the air,” she says in a humorous video shared on TikTok. A video that has been liked almost two million times and is accompanied by music: Funny by Gold-Tiger.
“I was shocked”
This video, taken just moments after the incident, does not convey the brief moment of hysteria triggered by the initial gasp for air. Luckily no one was sitting in front of the torn door. A chance given the fate of the people who were barely sitting one row in front of them.
The draft attracted a fifteen-year-old boy whose mother fought to keep him from being sucked into nothingness, as Faye (first name changed) told the Seattle Times:
“He and his seat were pulled to the…outside of the plane, toward the hole. I reached out, grabbed his body, and pulled him toward me through the armrest.
An action reinforced by a shot of adrenaline, “like I’ve never experienced in my life,” she remembers. “Of course I was scared. But I am a mother. And that fear doesn’t come to mind when you see your child next to a hole in an airplane.”
On the other side of the plane, at the front, the pilots keep a cool head. A released recording testifies to the crew's mastery despite the circumstances.
“We would like to be relegated if it is possible? (…) Yes, it is an emergency. We are depressurized, we have to descend, we are carrying 171 passengers,” the pilot asked calmly and decisively. Control tower.
After receiving the green light, the aircraft returned to the tarmac just 20 minutes after departure. A soft landing accompanied by applause and sighs of relief.
Crisis on site
On the ground, passengers were greeted by a swarm of flashing lights, and several emergency vehicles rushed to greet possible accident victims. Apart from minor injuries, the worst was avoided. The result could have been much worse if the two seats in front of the window had been occupied.
“It could have been a disaster,” said Jean Serrat, BFMTV’s aviation consultant.
This event left the passengers in shock, but not only that. It reopened old wounds from previous “Boeing 737 MAX Affairs”. Barely a year after its launch, two aircraft crashed almost six months apart, on October 28, 2018 and March 10, 2019. 346 people were killed in two tragedies. The error lies in faulty driver software.
This new episode, the umpteenth in a dark series, has caused the American manufacturer's stock market valuation to plummet. Within hours, the company's value fell by 10%, reaching almost $140 billion.
Boeing is not alone with the turbulence. Alaska Airlines is also under fire. The company quickly decided to ground its fleet of 65 Boeing 737Max aircraft while each plane underwent “full safety maintenance inspections.”
Measures that, in the eyes of the passengers, do not overshadow their responsibility in this accident. The initial results of the investigation conducted by the Aviation Safety Agency found that the company had ignored three previous warnings about the defective aircraft. The pressure relief problem indicator came on on December 7th, January 3rd and January 4th, twice before the day of the accident.
The company assures that these incidents were “fully assessed and resolved in accordance with approved maintenance procedures,” but also stated that this aircraft was prohibited from flying long distances over water “out of an abundance of caution.”
An investigation commissioned by Civil Aviation also found that the panels covering these doors were poorly secured. Several companies, including Alaska Airlines, observed “screws that needed to be tightened.”
The investigation is ongoing. The investigation was complicated by an oversight that was not without consequences: the conversations in the cockpit were not recorded. But other elements will also be available to investigators. More precisely: the door.
Bob, a professor living in Portland, found this piece of the cabin in the middle of his yard. Despite its fall, the piece is probably intact:
“The trees cushioned the fall, like an airbag. So [la porte] “It didn't hit the ground very hard,” the man explained on Jan. 8, saying he was “glad” the piece didn't fall on his house.
Another item that fell from the sky was found: a vacuumed up iPhone was found almost intact on the side of the road after falling from a height of 5,000 meters. A device was found in airplane mode.