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Alaska Airlines pilot describes moment of door blowout in first interview: “I knew something was catastrophically wrong”
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.
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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.”
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. — A New Hampshire woman suffered severe burns on her leg after hiking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park and falling into scalding water in a thermal area near the Old Faithful geyser, park officials said.
The 60-year-old woman from Windsor, New Hampshire, along with her husband and their leashed dog were walking off a designated trail near the Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon when she broke through a thin crust over the water and suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg, park officials said. Her husband and the dog weren’t injured.
The woman was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho for treatment.
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank
Park visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution. The ground in those areas is fragile and thin and there’s scalding water just below the surface, park officials said.
Pets are allowed in limited, developed areas of Yellowstone park but are prohibited on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry and in thermal areas.
The incident is under investigation. The woman’s name wasn’t made public.
This is the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone in 2024, park officials said in a statement. The park had recorded 3.5 million visitors through August this year.
Hot springs have injured and killed more people in Yellowstone National Park than any other natural feature, the National Park Service said. At least 22 people have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around the 3,471-square-mile national park since 1890, park officials have said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.