An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 MAX faced an emergency on January 6 after one of its doors blew open mid-air, minutes after take-off. Several passengers who were on board the ill-fated plane are now speaking about their horrifying ordeal. One such terrified passenger has described the moment she sent a heartbreaking text to her parents, believing her life might soon be over.
According to the New York Post, Emma Vu was asleep in seat 18B aboard Flight 1282 when the plane lost its door 16,000 feet in the air. In a TikTok video, Ms Vu explained how she felt the entire plane drop and feared she wouldn't survive.
"The masks r down. I am so scared right now...Please pray for me. I don't want to die,'' she texted her parents, believing they could have been her last.
In the video, she recalled, ''I woke up to the plane just falling and I knew it was not just normal turbulence because the masks came down, and that's when the panic started to set in. You just think it's never going to happen to you — and then it did happen to me.''
''I'm home now, it's OK. I'm definitely still shaken up,'' she added.
"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 airflow when you're in fight or flight you're not thinking about that'', she further said.
Ms Vu also spoke to CNN, and said that the entire ordeal was "very scary" and "very surreal."
Another traveller claimed that she was startled out of her sleep aboard the aircraft by a loud boom. She told the New York Times: ''I open up my eyes and the first thing I see is the oxygen mask right in front of me. And I look to the left and the wall on the side of the plane is gone. The first thing I thought was, 'I'm going to die'.''
Notably, the flight took off from Portland International Airport with 177 people on board and made an emergency landing in the state of Oregon on Friday. Fortunately, all passengers and crew were safe when the aircraft eventually landed. US aviation authorities have found the door plug of an airplane panel that blew out, a part that could potentially help with the investigations into the cause of the accident.
The airline has since offered apologies and compensation to the affected passengers.
Meanwhile, airlines and safety bodies around the world grounded some versions of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets pending inspections, with dozens of flights cancelled after the incident. The Federal Aviation Administration "is requiring immediate inspections of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight," the agency said on X.
