Alaska Airlines pilot was unaware of 'catastrophic' giant hole in Boeing plane till landing

In a shocking interview, Alaska Airlines pilot Emily Wiprud revealed that she was not aware of a doorpanel having blown out of the Boeing aircraft she was flying with four flight attendants and 171 passengers aboard till she made the landing.

In an interview with CBS News, She said that she had a feeling that something was “catastrophically wrong" but was not entirely aware of the mid-flight emergency.

“I didn’t know that there was a hole in the airplane until we landed. I knew something was catastrophically wrong," Wiprud said.

“The first indication was an explosion in my ears and then a whoosh of air.My body was forced forward and there was a loud bang as well. … The flight deck door was open. I saw tubes hanging from the cabin," she said while speaking to CBS News.

The flight took off from the Oregon airport after 5 pm on January 5 and was headed for Ontario, California.

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Six minutes after the take-off, the terrifying mid-air blowout occurred when the flight was 16,000 feet in the air.

Wiprud said she and her captain were not aware of the blow-out of the door plug on the left side of the fuselage but had an idea that some major mishap had occurred.

“It was so incredibly loud. And I remember putting the oxygen mask on and trying to transmit to air traffic control and wondering ‘Why can’t I hear anything?'” she said.

Pilot says she feared about passengers getting sucked out in mishap

Wiprud said that she looked behind and saw some empty chairs while making an emergency landing at Portland International Airport and feared passengers getting sucked out.

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She then asked the flight attendants if everyone was good, replying to which one passenger said there were “empty seats and injuries.”

“I opened the flight deck door and I saw calm, quiet, hundreds of eyes staring right back at me,” the pilot said.

After the door panel blew out, the headset of Wiprud got sucked out of the plane along with the phones of the two passengers’ phones and several aircraft components.

(With inputs from agencies)