Plane window ripped out mid-air with phones sucked from aircraft and child’s shirt torn off on Alaska Airlines flight
A WINDOW was ripped from a plane mid-air on Friday night, tearing the shirt off a child and sucking passengers’ phones from their hands.
The Alaska Airlines flight, which left Portland, Oregon for Ontario, California at 4:40 pm, was plunged into chaos less than an hour into its journey.
Stunned passengers described seeing a large section of the plane blown out mid-air, with dramatic pictures of the aftermath showing a gaping hole in its side.
One passenger told Fox News affiliate KPTV that a child had to be held in his seat by his mom as people lost their phones, which were sucked out of the plane.
Another child closest to the damage lost his shirt due to the violent depressurization, the outlet was told.
Shocking footage shared on TikTok captured the chaos, showing passengers using the emergency oxygen masks as the plane was still in the air.
“A part of the plane flew off not even 20 minutes into our flight,” the person who posted the clip wrote.
Part of the missing plane is seen in the video with the night sky visible just a few feet from where people were sitting.
“There was no one seated there,” a person could be heard saying in the clip.
The TikToker said that everyone was OK despite the terrifying incident.
“Girls’ trip turned into emergency landing trip…” read the caption.
Horrified TikTok users were quick to express their shock, demanding more answers.
“Can we find out where in the ACTUAL [did] the piece of the plane landed? [sic] On a car, a home, someone walking in the street?” one person wrote.
“And that is just another reason to never take your seatbelt off on a flight,” another said.
“Glad everyone is OK!”
The flight, carrying 174 passengers and 6 crewmembers, left Portland at 4:52 pm but returned just before 5:30 pm.
It rose to 16,000 feet (4,876 meters) before it began descending, according to data on the flight tracking website FlightAware.
Alaska Airlines quickly confirmed the mishap in a statement, insisting crew on board were “trained and prepared” to deal with it and that such a situation was very rare.
“The aircraft landed safely back at Portland International Airport with 171 guests and 6 crew members,” the airline said in a statement.
“The safety of our guests and employees is always our primary priority, so while this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation.”
It is understood that no one on the flight was injured.
The National Transportation Safety Board has said it is investigating an event on the flight and would share updates when they are available.
