Hole in jet’s fuselage forces landing at SeaTac
SEATTLE – A foot-long hole in the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines jet caused the plane to lose cabin pressure, make an emergency descent from 26,000 feet and return to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, authorities said Tuesday.
The incident Monday afternoon involved an MD-80 jet en route to Burbank, Calif. The plane landed safely at SeaTac, and none of the 140 passengers or five crew members was hurt, Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Caroline Boren said.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were investigating, along with the airline and the Port of Seattle.
A ramp worker has acknowledged he failed to immediately report striking the plane at the gate Monday with a baggage cart or baggage-belt machine, NTSB spokesman Jim Struhsaker said.
The worker told the agency that although the vehicle touched the plane, he was not aware he had dented it, Struhsaker said.
The bump created a crease in the plane’s aluminum skin, which opened up into a 12- by 6-inch gash as the plane came under increased pressure at 26,000 feet, Struhsaker said.
On Tuesday, Alaska Airlines contacted the Port of Seattle “and asked our police department to take a hit-and-run report,” port spokesman Bob Parker said Tuesday evening. “We’re coming into this a full 18 hours after the fact. We got involved after Alaska Airlines reported a hit-and-run involving their airplane.”
The worker was employed by Menzies Aviation, a British company that Alaska contracts with to provide baggage handling and other ramp services at SeaTac, Boren said.
Alaska Flight 536 left the airport for Burbank just before 4 p.m. Monday. The flight crew reported a loss of cabin pressure about 20 minutes later, airline spokeswoman Caroline Boren told KING-TV. Oxygen masks deployed for passengers and the plane made a rapid descent, landing at SeaTac just before 5 p.m., she said.
“I could feel that obviously my ears popping, and that’s not a good symbol, and that didn’t go away and then it got hard to breathe and then, whoosh, all the compression in the plane was lost. We totally decompressed,” passenger Jeremy Hermanns told KING.