The horrifying story of a mother when a hole opened up on aa Alaska Airlines flight: “I think my son blew out the window”

It was only last year when, cruising at a steady 16,000 feet, a plug on the door of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 blew, causing a huge hole to be ripped into the side of the aircraft. The Alaska Airlines flight 1282 from Portland to Ontario had not long been in the air, provoking a panic situation for the crew and all 171 passengers on board just 7 minutes after take-off.

The cabin immediately decompressed, subjecting the passengers to a sensation of an explosion as the oxygen masks simultaneously dropped out of the ceiling like nooses; phones were ripped out of hands as clothes were torn from bodies.

Problems contacting the sealed-off cockpit also meant that the cabin crew had no way of checking they were conscious... or worse.

And to top it off, one mother on board thought she lost her baby out of the now gaping gap in the side of the craft.

Luckily, the pilots were conscious and landed the plane safely at the origin airport, with everyone surviving and the momentarily missing baby safe and sound on board. Perhaps even luckier was the person sat next to the door in seat 26A: they never made it on the plane.

Recently, the National Transportation Safety Board held a hearing on the incident. In a transcript of an interview with a flight attendant aboard, they say that the mother in question was understandably petrified at the prospect of losing her child, telling the crew that “I was holding her, I said, ‘What’s going on, what’s happening?’ and she just says, ‘I was holding my son and I think my son blew out the window.’ And that’s when I lift up my head and saw the hole and I just started like shaking."

CNN add that “among the NTSB’s recommendations following the conclusion of its investigation this week was to once again suggest that the Federal Aviation Administration require passengers ages two and younger have their own seats to protect them.”

NTSB board member Thomas Chapman said at the hearing that “I’ve long believed that parents of lap children do not fully realise the serious risk to which they’re exposing their young children. The experts agree that the safest place for an infant is secured in their own seat. If there’s turbulence or worse, you may not be able to protect your baby in your arms.”

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Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told CNN that “It’s unfortunate that we’ve turned our backs on the safety of people who can’t speak up", adding that “we know that it (a car seat) is the most safe, and that it is unsafe to hold your child in a critical incident or an incident of turbulence.”

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