Post date: Apr 02, 2011 9:31:8 AM
Southwest Airlines plane with a gaping hole in the fuselage makes an emergency landing at a military base in Yuma, Arizona.
YUMA, ARIZONA, UNITED STATES (APRIL 1, 2011) NBC - A Southwest Airlines plane with a gaping hole in its fuselage made an emergency landing at a military base in Arizona on Friday (April 1) after a sudden drop in cabin pressure, airline officials said.
Southwest Flight 812 from Phoenix to Sacramento, with 118 passengers on board, landed safely at the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station with a hole in the top of the aircraft, a Southwest spokeswoman said in a statement.There were no passenger injuries reported, the statement said. The airline said one flight attendant was slightly injured.
The Boeing 737 landed at 4:07 p.m. local time after declaring an emergency, said Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.
Later in the evening, passengers were placed on a different Southwest plane and flown to Sacramento, where they reunited with family and friends and described the harrowing scene to the NBC television affiliate in Sacramento.
"It was the scariest moment of my life," a female passenger told the station.
"You could feel it. You could hear it. Everybody's ears popping, oxygen masks falling. You know the unlikely event that they fall you are supposed to pull them. They fell," a male passenger explained.
Southwest airlines said an aircraft with maintenance crew, ground crew and customer service agents onboard, was sent to Yuma.
An investigation was underway into what caused the damage and decompression.