Boeing plane loses door, other issues found @ in thread

[minzy]

Jan 10, 2024 16:50:31 GMT -5 krystee said:

I can’t imagine how terrifying that must be. How incredibly fortunate that the two closest seats in the impacted row did not have anyone in them. What are the chances of that?! I think every window seat has been full on every flight I’ve been on for the last several years.

Anecdotes but I flew on Friday and the plane was only maybe 60% full. (As in, I logged in several hours after check-in opened and still was position B14 on Southwest.) The flight out was packed though.

[Deleted]

Jan 10, 2024 10:00:59 GMT -5 Saudade said:

The pilots would have been alerted immediately to a depressurization event but wouldn't necessarily know what would be the cause. I imagine once the FA knew, they would have alerted the pilots to the exact cause.

@villainv may have more insight.

They may not have received warnings leading up to the failure, but they definitely should have received several warnings when the panel blew out (low cabin pressure, likely). Sometimes those alerts are due to a failure of the pressurization system and sometimes they’re due to a window blowout or door seal, so it’s theoretically possible that behind a locked cockpit door, they may not have heard or felt the blowout, so it may have taken a minute or two to realize that a panel actually blew out. They would have taken immediate action checklist items first (don oxygen masks, deployed masks for passengers, etc), then started to diagnose the problem.

However, I find it hard to believe there wouldn’t have been calls from the flight attendants to the flight crew telling them that something big happened…

[RoxMonster]

"Homendy described a chaotic scene in the plane's cockpit and directly outside the cockpit after the blowout.

She said the flight crew heard a bang and the cockpit "door flew open" from depressurization, so they immediately put their masks on, but communication in the cockpit and between the crew members in the cabin and cockpit were very difficult.

The force of the depressurization slammed the cockpit door into the front restroom door, damaging the restroom door, and it took a flight attendant three tries to get the cockpit door to close again, Homendy said.

She noted that the first officer lost her headset and the captain had a portion of her headset pulled off. The captain and first officer couldn't hear anything in their damaged headsets once they were recovered so they used the overhead speaker to hear."

Source: www.cbsnews.com/news/faa-halts-boeing-737-max-9-aircraft-alaska-airlines-door-midflight/

[shauni27]

I can't read the article that was posted earlier, but I am glad because I think it would be too difficult for me. I am, however, comforted with the fact that the pilots landed the plane successfully and that everyone was ok despite this insane incident. It reminds me that overall pilots are incredible at what they do and they are often so good at dealing with these freak accidents. Reassures me for when I travel.

I will not be allowing my 6 year old to fly with the window seat ever again, though. Sorry, kiddo.

[onomatopoeia]

Jan 9, 2024 12:04:09 GMT -5 InBetweenDays said:

This article gives a crazy account of the people sitting in the row right in front of the hole.

@@@@
The article references a mom and 15 yo son.
www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/when-hole-opened-on-alaska-flight-1282-a-mom-held-tight-to-her-son/

This article left me breathless.  omg.  

[dancingirl21]

I heard the audio recording of the pilot somehow (I don't remember where). She was super calm and said they needed an immediate landing back at the airport because of depressurization. The air traffic controller kept trying to get more information - asking what happened and she just kept saying there was a depressurization. It sounded like she didn't fully know what happened, or didn't want to say.

@@@ We fly as a family of 4 pretty frequently. My kids are 10 and 7 and always want to sit in the window seat but I never let them. I always go in the window. Ever since that woman was sucked out of a window on a Southwest plane, I won't let them sit in the window.

My DH took 113 flights last year and definitely spent some time on the Max 9. Nothing happened on any of those, obviously, but I hear something like this and think how it could have been him.

[Deleted]

Jan 11, 2024 9:16:55 GMT -5 dancingirl21 said:

I heard the audio recording of the pilot somehow (I don't remember where). She was super calm and said they needed an immediate landing back at the airport because of depressurization. The air traffic controller kept trying to get more information - asking what happened and she just kept saying there was a depressurization. It sounded like she didn't fully know what happened, or didn't want to say.

I haven’t heard the whole tape, but I’ve heard part of it. Being cool, calm, and collected comes down to the tremendous amount of emergency training that aircrew get. I’m not sure if she has a military background or not, but it’s very typical of military-trained aircrew.

Honestly, air traffic control doesn’t need to know what the exact emergency is, they only need to know what the pilot needs. Depressurization means they need to get below 10,000 feet immediately so they can get off oxygen, and eventually they need to know what kind of emergency equipment to have standing by on the runway. Asking for any other details while the pilot is trying to deal with an emergency and fly an aircraft, especially if the pilot is having trouble hearing and communicating with crew, can really be extremely distracting and dangerous.

[bears]

www.flightradar24.com/blog/avtalk-250/
This podcast had a really fascinating discussion with a commercial pilot about the incident and the response.

[basilosaurus]

Jan 12, 2024 7:28:30 GMT -5 @villainv said:

Jan 11, 2024 9:16:55 GMT -5 dancingirl21 said:

I heard the audio recording of the pilot somehow (I don't remember where). She was super calm and said they needed an immediate landing back at the airport because of depressurization. The air traffic controller kept trying to get more information - asking what happened and she just kept saying there was a depressurization. It sounded like she didn't fully know what happened, or didn't want to say.

I haven’t heard the whole tape, but I’ve heard part of it. Being cool, calm, and collected comes down to the tremendous amount of emergency training that aircrew get. I’m not sure if she has a military background or not, but it’s very typical of military-trained aircrew.

Honestly, air traffic control doesn’t need to know what the exact emergency is, they only need to know what the pilot needs. Depressurization means they need to get below 10,000 feet immediately so they can get off oxygen, and eventually they need to know what kind of emergency equipment to have standing by on the runway. Asking for any other details while the pilot is trying to deal with an emergency and fly an aircraft, especially if the pilot is having trouble hearing and communicating with crew, can really be extremely distracting and dangerous.

Calm is exactly what I expect and want. I know many fliers, and that's exactly what they would do. x situation y solve, here's what we need to do.