Testimony reviewed by The Independent from unnamed flight attendants released ahead of a two-day hearing by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) regarding the mid-air door blowout of an Alaska Airlines Boeing jet has revealed harrowing details from the dramatic episode.
Interviews with crew present on the flight paint a chaotic picture of the immediate aftermath after a door panel blew off the Boeing 737 Max 9 at 16,000 feet about 20 minutes after departing Portland, OR. Attendants were positive that passengers had been sucked out of the hole, and some were unsure if the pilots had been compromised.
“I said there is a hole in the plane, in the back of the plane, and I’m sure we’ve lost passenger [sic]”, one flight attendant with 20 years of experience said upon seeing the hole and five empty seats.
Another flight attendant tried to contact ground control, but couldn’t connect to anyone. “I think I was able to (blurt) out, ‘I think we have a hole and we might’ve lost passengers,’" she recalled. "And then it seemed like I just lost contact. I tried calling back, tried speaking loudly into the phone, [but] I couldn’t hear anything."
”Probably the scariest thing was I didn’t have exact communication with my flight deck," they continued, "and at first I didn’t know if the decompression was in the front, if we have pilots, and not being able to fully communicate with the back."
Both employees described to investigators damage to the aircraft and injuries to passengers. One teenager, whose shirt was ripped off in the blowout, reportedly had a red face and neck. One of the chairs near the blown-out door had been “completely stripped of the leather cover, fabric stuffing, upholstery, and headrest tray table with the force of the decompression.”
The second flight attendant reported that once pilots announced they would be landing the plane, “I knew that we were going to be okay.”
An initial NTSB investigation found that the door was affixed with zero retention bolts when there should have been four. The incident was the first of several frightening mid-air incidents for Boeing aircraft this year and has sent the manufacturer spiraling into a reputational tailspin.
At the hearing, which began Tuesday, the NTSB is reviewing 737 manufacturing and inspections and oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration. When it concludes, the board plans to make a series of recommendations to prevent future calamities such as the one that befell Alaska Airlines in January.
