From Le Figaro
Published 1 hour ago, updated 30 minutes ago
Passengers on the flight shared photos on social media showing a gaping hole in the side of the plane behind the left wing, as if an entire section of the fuselage around the window had been torn off. DR
The almost new Alaska Airlines Boeing had to turn around and make an emergency landing in Portland. Miraculously, no passengers were injured.
An Alaska Airlines plane en route to Ontario, California, was forced to turn around and make an emergency landing at Portland International Airport on Friday evening, January 5, after part of its fuselage collapsed. is suddenly severed. No injuries were reported. Passengers on the flight shared photos on social media showing a gaping hole in the side of the plane behind the left wing, as if an entire section of the fuselage around the window had been torn off.
A 20-year-old passenger told local newspaper The Oregonian that she heard “a very loud bang” about 20 minutes after takeoff. “It sounded like the ears were pounding like normal on a plane, only 10 times louder,” she said. “I couldn't believe it was real.” According to witnesses on social media, many items were being vacuumed out of the plane at the time of the accident, but fortunately no passenger was in the immediate vicinity of the window at the time.
According to this passenger, instead of descending into chaos, there was a strange calm on the plane while there were around 200 passengers on board. “I just prayed that everything would go well,” she said. “We were all calm but I felt like I was going to cry because who knows, it could be my last moments.”
Another passenger, Kyle Rinker, 29, said in a text message that there was “dead silence” on the plane. Nobody made a sound.”
The company shared on the social network
The FAA registry shows the Boeing 737-9 was nearly new, manufactured in 2023 and certified in November. It reached an altitude of 16,000 feet before turning back toward Portland.