Alaska Airlines pilot: ‘I was in shock’

By David Goldman, CNN

(CNN) — Emily Wiprud, the first officer piloting Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on January 5, says she initially thought people had been killed when the plane’s door plug blew off shortly after takeoff, according to an interview with CBS News Wednesday.

“I opened the flight deck door. And I saw quiet. Hundreds of eyes staring right back at me. And I looked at my flight attendants and I said, ‘Are you okay?’ And in that response, I heard: ‘hole,’ ‘four, five empty seats’ and ‘injuries.’”

Wiprud said she thought people were blown out of the plane. But the flight crew was quickly able to determine that all passengers and crew were accounted for.

“I remember it not taking very long for us to confirm we had 177 souls on board,” Wiprud said. “I was so thankful. I was in shock.”

A door plug, part of the fuselage that takes the place of an emergency exit door on planes with certain seating configurations, had blown off, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the aircraft. Federal investigations would later determine that Boeing delivered the 737 Max plane to Alaska Airlines without four bolts that were designed to hold the door plug in place.

Wiprud said from the flight deck she knew something terrible had happened, but she didn’t immediately know that the door plug had blown off.

“The first indication was: It was an explosion in my ears. And then a whoosh of air. My body was forced forward, and there was a loud bang,” Wiprud told CBS in her interview. “I didn’t know that there was a hole in the airplane until we landed.”

She said the noise from the air whooshing through the plane was “so incredibly loud,” and, after she put on her oxygen mask, Wiprud said she couldn’t hear anything on her headset. The reason: Her headset was no longer on her head. It had gotten ripped off as the cabin was depressurized.

Wiprud helped safely land the plane, and no one aboard was seriously injured.

Despite months of investigations and hearings, many questions about the incident remain. For example, neither Boeing nor the National Transportation Safety Board know how the 737 Max was delivered to Alaska Airlines without the four bolts.

The incident inflicted severe damage to Boeing’s reputation for safety and quality. The company replaced its CEO and now has a court monitor to oversee its compliance with federal safety standards.

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