An Alaska Airlines flight with 177 people onboard made an emergency landing in the US state of Oregon on Friday, the airline said, with passengers reporting a plane window panel blown out after take-off.
Flight 1282 took off from Portland International Airport at around 5pm before returning safely "after the crew reported a pressurization issue," the Federal Aviation Administration wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Images posted on social media showed the window panel of a plane blown out, with emergency oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling.
Kyle Rinker, a passenger on the flight, told CNN that a window popped off soon after take-off.
An Alaska Airlines flight made an emergency landing Friday night after a portion of the aircraft blew out mid-air. Video obtained by CBS News appeared to show one of the passenger window panels had been blown out. https://t.co/wKIOLENg3r pic.twitter.com/M00hT7HaPx
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 6, 2024
"It was really abrupt. Just got to altitude, and the window/wall just popped off and didn't notice it until the oxygen masks came off," he told the broadcaster.
Another passenger, Vi Nguyen, told The New York Times that a loud noise during the flight had woken her.
"I open up my eyes and the first thing I see is the oxygen mask right in front of me," Nguyen told the newspaper. "And I look to the left and the wall on the side of the plane is gone."
Alaska Airlines flight to Ontario had to make an emergency landing after a window blew out. pic.twitter.com/5pQMbAqq9l
— Los Angeles Scanner (@LosAngeles_Scan) January 6, 2024
"The first thing I thought was, 'I'm going to die,'" she added.
The National Transportation Safety Board, FAA and Alaska Airlines each said they were investigating the incident.
"The aircraft landed safely back at Portland International Airport with 171 guests and 6 crew members," the airline said in a statement.
An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Portland International Airport after a window blew out mid-air, passengers say
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 6, 2024
One passenger reported that the extreme depressurization caused a child’s shirt to be ripped offhttps://t.co/fd3enwCoC0 pic.twitter.com/ZPtDnYX9mu
"While this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation," it said.
The Boeing 737 Max 9 plane took off at 5:07pm, heading to Ontario, California, before returning to the airport around 20 minutes later, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
It was certified airworthy in October, according to the FAA registry website.
Boeing wrote on X that it was gathering more information and a technical team stood ready to support the investigation.