A pilot on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 is opening up for the first time about the terrifying moments when a door panel blew out of the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft in mid-flight in January. 

“The first indication was an explosion in my ears and then a whoosh of air,” First Officer Emily Wiprud told CBS News in an exclusive interview. “My body was forced forward and there was a loud bang as well. … The flight deck door was open. I saw tubes hanging from the cabin.” 

Wiprud said that at that point, she didn’t know what was wrong. Instinct took over, and she and the captain started working to land safely. 

“I didn’t know that there was a hole in the airplane until we landed,” Wiprud said. “I knew something was catastrophically wrong.”

“It was so incredibly loud,” she recalled. “And I remember putting the oxygen mask on and trying to transmit to air traffic control and wondering ‘Why can’t I hear anything?'” 

It would turn out that her headset had been yanked off. Multiple objects, including the phones of two passengers, Wiprud’s headset and multiple aircraft components, were sucked out of the aircraft. 

The panel, also known as a door plug, is designed to fit into door spaces that aren’t typically needed on an aircraft, transforming them into windows. The Alaska Airlines plane was just about six minutes into its flight between Portland, Oregon, and Ontario, California, when the panel blew out at 16,000 feet. The crew would have to make an emergency landing. 

Wiprud next focused on accounting for the 171 passengers and four flight attendants on the plane. 

“I opened the flight deck door and I saw calm, quiet, hundreds of eyes staring right back at me,” she said. She asked the flight attendants if they were OK, and the crew members told her there were “empty seats and injuries” among the passengers. 

Wiprud said when she heard there were empty seats, she thought they had lost passengers. 

Luckily, no passengers had been sucked out of the plane, but a teen aboard the flight had his shirt ripped off his body. While Wiprud was checking with the flight attendants, she saw the teen’s mother on the ground searching for him. 

“She looked back and her son was gone. As a mother myself, I can’t even imagine that feeling,” said Wiprud, who has two young children. It turned out that the teen, who had been in the same row where the panel blew out, had quickly moved to another seat.

In the end, the plane landed safely, and the reported injuries turned out to be minor. 

Wiprud spoke with CBS News alongside Air Line Pilots Association president Captain Jason Ambrosi, who said, “The most important safety device on any aircraft is two well-trained, qualified and rested pilots. … This crew instinctually put their training in place and executed just flawlessly.”

 Preliminary results of an investigation by the NTSB found that four key bolts meant to hold the door plug in place were were missing from the aircraft. Investigations were also launched by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Justice and the FBI, which informed passengers in a letter that they may have been “victim(s) of a crime.” Boeing has said it will cooperate fully with all investigations.

Wiprud and the captain of Flight 1282 are being honored with the 2023 Air Line Pilots Association Superior Airmanship Award for their skill and professionalism during the crisis. She said quick thinking by airline staff made all the difference.

“My captain is a hero. Same with the flight attendants, same with all the personnel that was there to support us that day,” she said. “And that should be celebrated. Everybody survived.” 

Taylor Swift’s post endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the White House on Tuesday drove at least 337,826 users to visit the site vote.gov, a sign of the potential effect her decision to speak out could have on November’s election.

Vote.gov is run by a federal agency known as the General Services Administration, in partnership with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The site includes information about how to register to vote and cast a ballot, and directs users to state sites where they can register.

In an Instagram post after the presidential debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump, Swift wrote that she would be voting for Harris and Gov. Tim Walz, her Democratic running mate. She urged her fans to do their own research and make their voices heard in November.

“I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make. I also want to say, especially to first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered! I also find it’s much easier to vote early,” she wrote, sharing a custom link to vote.gov in a corresponding Instagram story.

A spokesperson for the GSA said 337,826 users had visited vote.gov through Swift’s link as of 2 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday. The spokesperson noted that new voters must ultimately sign up to vote through their own state-specific website.

Harris’ campaign quickly embraced the support of one of the world’s most influential pop stars. The campaign soon began selling Harris-Walz friendship bracelets, the fashion accessory that millions of Swift fans have worn to her Eras Tour around the world. The bracelets sold out by Wednesday.

Swift has demonstrated an ability to get her supporters to register to vote in the past. In 2023, she urged fans to sign up at vote.org, and more than 35,000 people answered the call.

The Pennsylvania native first waded into politics in 2018, when she endorsed the Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen for Senate in Tennessee. “In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” Swift wrote at the time. Bredesen ultimately lost to Republican Marsha Blackburn.

In her endorsement of Harris, Swift wrote that the vice president “fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” and called her “a steady-handed, gifted leader.” 

She signed her post “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady,” a reference to comments by Sen. JD Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate. In a 2021 interview, Vance said that the country was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable in their own lives.”

On Fox News on Wednesday, Vance questioned the impact of Swift’s endorsement.

“We admire Taylor Swift’s music, but I don’t think most Americans, whether they like her music or are fans of hers or not, are going to be influenced by a billionaire celebrity who I think is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and the problems of most Americans,” Vance said.

contributed to this report.