Alaska Airlines passenger drafted final texts to her loved ones after section of the plane blew out midflight
By Jillian Sykes, CNN
(CNN) — Stephanie King told CNN she was returning to her home in California after a visit to Portland, Oregon, when she heard a loud roar of wind on her Alaska Airlines flight on Friday.
King said she was seated in an aisle seat in row 12 of Flight 1282, but several rows back, a section of the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft had blown out midflight.
“I just knew that something bad had happened. I wasn’t sure what was going on and felt pretty scared,” she told CNN by phone Saturday.
King said flight attendants made announcements but because the plane was open, it was too loud for her to hear much of what was being said.
Several passengers closer to the hole in the plane were frantic and moved to empty seats away from the incident, King told CNN.
“One of the ladies was screaming and crying. She was inconsolable. She kept saying ‘My son! My son! He got his shirt ripped off!’” King said, “It was absolutely surreal.”
Fearing for her safety, King told CNN she took out her cellphone to record video and draft final text messages to her loved ones.
“Because I was flying alone, I drafted some text messages to my boyfriend and my mom to say something was going on, that I was scared, and I love them,” she said.
King said while it felt like “forever,” the plane safely landed less than 10 minutes after the incident.
“That was more than enough time to freak out though. I heard that peoples’ cell phones and shoes and shirts got thrown out the window. Anything could’ve happened,” she added.
Shortly after the emergency landing, firefighters boarded the plane to see if there were injuries. Once the area was cleared, the deboarding process started, King told CNN.
“It was then really calm. Everybody was just in shock. We were all still so confused. Everybody was super quiet. It was eerie, actually, how quiet and calm everybody was just because it was so unreal,” she told CNN.
There were no serious injuries reported among the flight’s 171 passengers and six crew members, and one person was taken to the hospital, CNN previously reported.
After the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft to be grounded pending careful inspection, Alaska Airlines said Saturday 18 of its fleet of 65 Max 9 aircraft have been cleared to return to service.
King said she is still processing the event but that she has received communication and unspecified compensation from Alaska Airlines.
“It’s unsettling that there have been so many issues with this specific type of plane. I hope something is done so that this doesn’t happen again because it went OK this time but might not next time,” King told CNN.
CNN’s Jay Croft, Sara Smart, Sharif Paget, Pete Muntean and Raja Razek contributed to this report.
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