‘Truly terrifying’: Investigators describe the blowout aboard an Alaska Airlines flight

Federal transportation officials launched their investigation Saturday into the cause of a sudden accident that tore open a portion of the cabin of an Alaska Airlines plane shortly after takeoff, a scene that investigators described as “truly terrifying.”

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was about 10 minutes into its journey from Oregon’s Portland International Airport to Ontario on Friday evening when a mid-cabin plug door abruptly “departed the airplane, resulting in rapid decompression,” said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, the federal agency responsible for investigating transportation accidents.

The blowout occurred at an altitude of about 16,000 feet, Homendy said, roughly half the plane’s cruising altitude. There were 171 passengers in the plane’s 178 seats and six crew members. No major injuries were reported on the flight.

In a stroke of luck, no one was in seats 25A and 26A, the two chairs closest to the gaping hole in the plane. The force of the blowout tore both seats’ head rests off, as well as the back of seat 26A, Homendy said.

“We are very,