Alaska Airlines officials say they are investigating an incident involving one of their flights that flew out of Portland, Oregon on Friday. Photos shared with KTVU show a section of the blown-out plane.
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00:00 A plane headed from Portland to Ontario, California was forced to make an emergency landing after
00:06 a portion of the plane flew right off after they reached cruising altitude.
00:11 Good evening, I'm Jana Kaltiyama.
00:13 And I'm Christina Rendon.
00:14 Luckily, no one was hurt, but Newton I reporter Jeffrey Lindblom spoke with one passenger
00:18 who says the depressurization was so intense, phones flew out of the plane and a shirt was
00:23 pulled off of a child's body.
00:25 Flight crew on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 declaring an emergency as these photos show
00:35 the aircraft appearing to be missing a panel.
00:37 It was about as wide as a refrigerator and about as high as two thirds of a refrigerator
00:42 in height.
00:43 Evan Smith says he was among the 174 passengers aboard the flight heading to Ontario.
00:48 Says they just reached cruising altitude at around 10,000 feet as disaster struck.
00:53 There was a really loud bang towards the left rear of the plane and a whooshy noise and
00:58 all the air masks dropped.
01:04 Flight crew made the call to return to Portland while Smith says he looked back about six
01:07 rows and saw what he believes is a missing side panel in the aircraft.
01:16 Just kind of sit there.
01:17 It's not anything I have any control over and it's just wait and see what happens.
01:20 Smith says he spoke with another passenger who said they were a row behind where the
01:24 incident occurred.
01:25 And they said there was a kid in that row who his shirt was sucked off him and out of
01:30 the plane and his mother was holding on to him to make sure he didn't go with it.
01:34 He believes some cell phones and other items may have blown out too and he says it's fortunate
01:38 they weren't higher in the sky.
01:40 He also credits the cabin crew for doing what he calls a good job.
01:44 As he says he watched crew members help some women who were fearful move to a different
01:48 spot on the plane.
01:49 Portland tower, 12-8 crew, we're on the ILS to the last emergency aircraft.
01:53 It says something that those planes can take that kind of a hit and still go ahead and
01:58 land safely.
02:01 Alaska Airlines issued a statement in response to the incident saying in part the aircraft
02:05 landed safely back at Portland International Airport with 171 guests and six crew members.
02:11 The safety of our guests and employees is always a primary priority.
02:15 So while this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to
02:19 safely manage the situation.
02:21 And the National Transportation Safety Board released a statement saying quote NTSB is
02:26 investigating an event involving Alaska Airlines flight 1282.
02:30 We will post any updates regarding the investigation when they are available.
02:34 Of course you can find more information and details of the continuing incident online.
02:37 Just visit our website, KTVU.com.