Holed jet makes emergency landing
A 12-inch hole in the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines jet caused the plane to lose cabin pressure, forcing the pilots to make an emergency descent and return to the airport.
The incident on Monday involved an MD-80 jet travelling from Seattle to Burbank, California. The plane landed safely at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and none of the 140 passengers was hurt.
A baggage handler acknowledged that he failed to immediately report striking the plane at the gate Monday with a baggage cart or baggage-belt machine, Jim Struhsaker, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said.
The worker told the agency that although the vehicle touched the plane, he was not aware he had dented it.
The accident created a crease in the plane’s aluminium skin, which opened up into a 12-by-6in gash as the jet came climbed to 26,000 feet, Struhsaker said.
The crew of Flight 536 reported a loss of cabin pressure about 20 minutes after take-off, airline spokeswoman Caroline Boren said.
Oxygen masks deployed for passengers, and the plane made a rapid descent back toward the airport.
“I could feel that obviously my ears popping ... and then it got hard to breathe, and then, whoosh, all the compression in the plane was lost,” passenger Jeremy Hermanns said.
