PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Portland International Airport on Friday night after a large section of the aircraft blew out in mid-air, according to several passengers.
Dramatic photos sent to us by one passenger on the plane, who wished to remain anonymous, show a large section of the airplane’s fuselage missing.
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At 7:26 p.m. (PST) Alaska Airlines posted on X/Twitter that they were “aware of an incident” aboard their flight AS1282 and said they would release more information as it becomes available. Alaska confirmed to KPTV via email that 174 passengers and 6 crew members were aboard the flight.
The flight was headed from PDX to Ontario, California. It departed Portland at 4:40 p.m. and was back on the ground in Portland around 5:30 p.m.
One passenger we talked to at the airport said that a kid had to be held in his seat by his mom and people lost their phones which were sucked out of the plane.
That same child closest to the damaged part of the plane lost his shirt due to the violent and sudden depressurization but otherwise everyone on board appeared to be OK, according to a passenger.
According to the Port of Portland, the fire department responded to the plane after it landed and treated minor injuries. There was one person taken from the scene for additional medical treatment. No serious injuries were reported.
Several people on board the flight, who wished not to be named, reported to us that the airplane’s oxygen masks deployed immediately after the depressurization, and multiple people used the masks as they waited for the plane to land at PDX.
A passenger named Diego Murillo told KPTV that Alaska Airlines rebooked them on an 11 p.m. flight out of PDX. But otherwise the airline had not told him anything about the incident.
Murillo said he and his family were preparing to reach their final destination around 2 a.m. Saturday.
FOX 12 has reached out to the FAA, Alaska Airlines and the airport for more details. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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