“I heard a popping sound. I thought, ‘Oh, this is how I die.’”
Friday evening (local time) on the 5th before the weekend. Mr. Bi Nguyen (22), who was boarding a flight from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, fell asleep slightly as soon as he sat down in his seat. It must have been about 5 minutes since he took off. He opened his eyes to a sudden loud noise, and an oxygen mask came down and flapped in front of him. When I turned my head in surprise, I saw a hole in one of the walls of the plane, as if it had been torn off by something. He told the New York Times (NYT), “As I looked at the dark night sky beyond the hole, I realized that death had arrived.”
Following the plane crash at Haneda Airport in Japan at the beginning of the year, a major plane disaster almost occurred in the United States. The fuselage of the plane in flight broke apart and the ‘flight of death’ continued for about 20 minutes, leaving the 177 passengers on board in shock and despair. Fortunately, casualties were avoided due to an emergency landing, but regulatory authorities began a detailed investigation, suspecting a defect in the aircraft.
According to CNN, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which departed Portland Airport at around 5:07 pm on the 5th, decided to turn back six minutes after departure and returned to Portland Airport at around 5:27 pm. Alaska Airlines said on the 6th, “All 177 people, including 171 passengers and 6 crew members, are safe. “Some suffered (light) injuries, but all have now returned home,” he said.
It is reported that the accident occurred when an emergency exit that was currently not in use and had been converted into a wall was torn off. At the time of the accident, the plane was operating at 440 miles per hour (approximately 708 km), but it is said that there were no passengers in the seats next to the emergency exit. However, the teenage boy sitting next to him had his entire shirt ripped off and sucked out. Passenger Stephanie King told CNN, “The boy’s mother was so shocked that she screamed, ‘My child’s clothes are torn,’ so the flight attendants immediately moved her to another seat.”
As the sudden disturbance died down thanks to the efforts of the flight attendants, a ‘silence of despair’ came to the cabin. Ms. King also said, “I thought I was going to die too, so I sent a text message to my boyfriend and my mother saying ‘I love you.’” “Even after the plane landed safely and came to a complete stop, it was eerily quiet for a long time. “I think everyone was so shocked that they didn’t know how to react,” he explained the situation at the time.
The plane, where only the sound of a baby was crying, became tense when the captain announced, “Please stay in your seat for a moment.” It is said that only then did the passengers burst into tears, clap and cheer.
The next day, on the 6th, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted all operations of the Boeing 737MAX 9 model that was involved in the accident and ordered “all to undergo inspection immediately.” It has been determined that there are 171 Boeing 737MAX 9s currently owned by U.S. airlines or scheduled to operate within the United States. Some models have already completed inspection and are being put back into service. Boeing said, “We will fully comply with the FAA decision.” “We are cooperating closely with regulators and customers to investigate the incident.”
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) immediately dispatched a fact-finding team to Portland. The Washington Post (WP) reported, “Based on an analysis of photos from the scene, it is presumed that the emergency door that had been remodeled into the wall because it was not in use had fallen off.”
This model was launched in 2017 as a sub-model of the 737MAX, consisting of 7, 8, 9, and 10 in descending order of size. According to the aviation information website FlightAware, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, where the accident occurred, began operation in November of last year and has flown 145 times so far.
Another sub-type 8 of the 737MAX crashed twice during operation in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019, killing all on board. As a series of disasters occurred in the MAX 8, which had been launched less than two years ago, suspicions were raised about safety system defects and Boeing’s negligence was revealed. The FAA suspended operation of the aircraft in March 2019, and operations resumed in December 2020 after defects were corrected.
Due to this accident, distrust of the 737MAX model in general is growing, and a movement to avoid boarding it is spreading. On social media such as Twitter, the list of airlines that own the corresponding aircraft model is being made public, and methods for checking the aircraft model through the reservation number are also being shared.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.