What started out as a smooth, easy trip from Nashville to Baltimore quickly turned into a frightening flight for more than 100 passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight Monday. A 1-foot-by-1-foot hole developed on the top of the plane at the base of the vertical stabilizer and exposed passengers to the evening sky. Passenger Michael Cunningham said he heard a loud boom, and then looked up and saw the hole in the plane’s cabin. Cunningham snapped photos after the hole opened up.
“All of the sudden, the loudest noise I ever heard came out of nowhere,” he said. “There was no pop, no creak, no explosion-like noise. There was just a loud roar. It took me a couple of seconds to wake up. I got the baseball cap out of my face and I look up and there’s the sun coming through the ceiling. …I saw sky where I shouldn’t be seeing it.”
The 737′s cabin suddenly lost pressure and oxygen masks fell from above. Passengers were instructed to put them over their noses and mouths. The plane made an emergency landing at 6:15 p.m. at Yeager Airport in Charleston, W.Va.. Incredibly, no one was injured. Airport spokesperson Mike Plante said the passengers were remarkably calm as they waited for another plane to take them on to their true destination.
The passengers finally landed at BWI just before 10:30 p.m.
“As soon as we got to the airport in West Virginia, everybody cheered, everybody high-fived the captain. Some gave him hugs,” Cunningham said. “But it was great crew, great flight crew, great flight attendants. Everybody just did what they needed to do and everybody was fine.”
Holy Schnikey! Is there an extra charge for the “fresh air”?
obviously photo shop artwork here
It should be against the law for some people to (ab)use a video camera.
The 737 Convertible.
Hopper, I’m with you. But let me add, it’s time for phone makers to stop upping the pixels and start working on the quality of the images. You can barely tell what you’re looking at in these images. I have 5 Mp on my phone and barely acceptable images. A few years ago, I had a 2 Mp Sony camera that took excellent photos. Now I hear a couple of manufacturers are introducing 12 Mp phones! Great, 12 megapixel blurs… Sorry to go off topic.
ADAMMMMMM! What is it? You think sheet metal and rivets are not as good as plastic???? Help us here…
The people around me would have definitely needed those oxygen masks, as I would have crapped my pants when the hole appeared.
Isn’t it reassuring that between life and death in the skies a 1/16 thick piece of aluminum separates the two?
Refer #16
You seem very well informed sir, does your pseudonym means that your are flying A319 (the short bus)?.
I don’t like flying cattle-car style anyhow. Just another convenient excuse not to fly Southwest…
@#ethanol
The 2nd biggest airline by planes, 1st by number of flights.
No major crashes, no passenger fatalities.
Who were you planning to fly with instead ?
If it had been comparable to Aloha Airlines Flight 243 it might have been news.
it wuz teh Gremlins
