Passenger aboard Alaska Airlines flight recounts harrowing experience
A passenger aboard the Alaska Airline flight that led to the indefinite grounding of all Boeing 737 Max 9 planes, when a door panel blew out mid-air, is now recounting the harrowing experience.
"They were calling we were passing 10,000 feet, and as soon as that happened, a few seconds later, I hear a 'swoosh' sound," recalled Cuong Tran, who was the closest passenger to window seat 26A, sitting just a row behind where the panel ripped off 16,000 feet in the air.
He says that for a brief second he went airborne, but remained inside of the plane thanks to his seatbelt.
"They wind just start sucking me," Tran said, reenacting how the force of the suction pulled his feet forwards, also sucking his phone, socks and shoes out of the gaping hole. "I was getting jammed onto the chair that was in front of me. I couldn't move until the pressure in the cabin stabilized."
The impact left him with considerable bruising on both of his legs, which are still visible one week later.
Tran says that he could see the lone passenger sitting in the row being pulled towards the hole, saying that his shirt ripped off his body and out of the plane.
His phone was one of the two that was found to have survived the plummet to the earth in Portland, somehow with barely a scratch. He's not expecting that anyone will find the socks and shoes he's still missing.
Tran was traveling with two middle school friends on the flight bound for Ontario, one of whom took video from inside of the plane after the door ripped off.
Ironically, Tran, who works as an aviation parts mechanic, says he's extremely curious what went wrong on the Boeing-made plane. As he continues to recover from the physically and mentally draining experience, Tran is taking time off from work.
"They need to check their quality control better, because this is one of the biggest companies in America," Tran said.
