Emily Wiprud, a pilot at Alaska Airlines, remembers the moment the Boeing 737 Max’s door lock was lost
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A pilot on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 has described the moment when a door stopper on a Boeing 737 Max 9 flew out in mid-air earlier this year.
First Officer Emily Wiprud said in an interview with CBS News published Wednesday that the horrific incident began when she heard an “explosion.”
“The first sign was an explosion in my ears and then a whooshing sound of air,” Wiprud said. “My body was thrown forward and there was also a loud bang. … The door to the flight deck was open. I saw hoses hanging out of the cabin.”
The tire blowout occurred on January 5 as the flight with 171 guests and six crew members on board was flying over Portland, Oregon, toward Ontario, California.
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A hole is visible on board the Boeing 737-9 MAX of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in Portland, Oregon. (NTSB/Fox News)
“It was so incredibly loud,” Wipurd told the outlet. “And I remember putting on the oxygen mask and trying to communicate with air traffic control and wondering, ‘Why can’t I hear anything?'”
Lead investigator John Lovell examined the fuselage connection area of the Boeing 737-9 MAX of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 earlier this year. (NTSB/Fox News)
Wipurd and the captain of the plane managed to make an emergency landing at Portland International Airport about 14 minutes after the decompression incident, but Wipurd said he didn’t learn exactly what happened until after landing.
Minor injuries were reported among some of the flight’s passengers. (NTSB/Fox News)
“I didn’t know there was a hole in the plane until we landed,” Wiprud said. “I knew something had gone catastrophically wrong.”
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During a hearing before the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) about the incident last month, a flight attendant said she feared passengers had been sucked out of the plane after seeing the gaping hole in the plane and the five empty seats.
Wiprud recalled that upon landing, flight crew told her that there were “empty seats and injured people” among the passengers.
Fortunately, no passengers were sucked out of the plane, although a teenager sitting near the broken door jamb had a torn shirt and had to quickly change seats. The other injuries reported among passengers were minor.
| ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BA | THE BOEING CO. | 160.97 | -0.29 |
-0.18% |
Boeing has since been the subject of a lengthy NTSB investigation, and the safety of the company’s aircraft has faced a new wave of scrutiny.
After the incident, Boeing failed to meet 33 points of a federal audit with a total of 97 violations, according to the New York Times. However, the company did meet 56 points of the audit.
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The FBI also began warning passengers that they may be “victims of a crime.”
