.png)
A passenger on an Alaska Airlines flight has told how she feared for her life and thought it was her 'final moments' when part of the plane was ripped off while thousands of feet in the air.
Emma Vu was one of the 177 passengers and crew onboard the Boeing 737 Max 9 on Friday evening when part of its fuselage and a window were blown out shortly after take off.
In scenes reminiscent of an air disaster film, oxygen masks were deployed as the cabin rapidly depressurised due to the huge gaping hole which had appeared in the side of the plane.
Advert
Take a look here:
Flight 1282 was heading to Ontario, California and had climbed to more than 16,000ft (4,876m) after departing from Portland, Oregon, just after 5.00pm local time yesterday (5 January), when chaos erupted.
Current reports claim that a deactivated emergency door - now used as a regular cabin window - was suddenly torn off, with passengers' belongings being sucked out into the starry night sky which had become completely visible to travellers.
Advert
In a TikTok post, Emma detailed her ordeal onboard the Alaska Airlines flight and shared the terrifying texts she sent to her loved ones as she feared the mid-air incident would be fatal.
She explained she had been asleep when she suddenly 'felt the entire plane drop' as the fuselage and cabin window disappeared and understandably became 'so scared'.
"The masks dropped, and people are screaming," she said in the clip, while showing social media users a teary-eyed selfie she had taken while frantically texting her family.
One chilling message read: "The masks r down; I am so scared right now; Please pray for me; Please I don't want to die."
Advert
Emma claimed that she watched on helplessly as a toddler's shirt 'flew off' and a phone 'flew out of the window' due to the drastic drop in pressure inside the cabin.
She continued: "I am so grateful for the ladies sat next to me. They were so sweet at calming me down, and the flight attendants were giving oxygen tanks to those who needed it more.
"But I was freaking out because my bag wouldn't inflate - and that's literally what they tell you in the safety thing, like don't worry you're still getting air flow... when you're in fight or flight you're not thinking about that.
"It was just so scary, no one knew what was happening, the pilot came on to tell everyone to put your mask on before you help others - literally word for word what they tell you in the safety training."
Thankfully, the 'surreal' experience came to an end a short time later as the Boeing 737 Max 9 made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport around 20 minutes after initially taking off and incredibly, no injuries were reported.
Advert
Alaska Airlines said all 177 people onboard had 'landed safely' and that it was now 'working to gather more information'.
Emma said that despite the great efforts of cabin crew, she had been disappointed by Alaska Airlines' response.
She claimed she was offered a reimbursed flight for the following day with more leg room, drinks and snacks - but she felt it was 'really not enough'.
Advert
However, she hopped on her rescheduled flight to California today happily as she feels 'it really cannot happen twice'.
An investigation has now been launched to get to the bottom of how the plane effectively fell apart in mid-air, as the Boeing 737 Max 9 was reported to have only just been constructed and recently put into service.
Alaska Airlines announced it was grounding its entire fleet of Max-9 aircraft following the dramatic incident.
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@shwimshady/KPTVTopics: Travel, US News, World News, News