Alaska Flight #536 – Rapid De-Pressurization and Panic at 30K Feet
by Jeremy on December 27, 2005
Boy, what a day. In what started as a typical flight home from a typical holiday weekend, changed drastically twenty minutes after take off. My fiancée and I were returning from a few days in Seattle when the unthinkable happened to us – our Alaska MD-80 Airplane tore a hole in it’s fuselage at 30K feet.
First of all, I’m just glad I’m here to write this post, to tell the tale of this horrifying incident – but the stupid circumstances by which it happened, are upsetting.
Nothing can describe the helpless feeling you go through during a time like this, when you are absent any control, you cannot breathe, and everyone around is stunned into fear. It all started with a loud bang – the cabin air began to swirl and the engine sound became deafening. As a GA-VFR pilot, I knew something was terribly wrong. As the smell of acrid AV-gas/JP4 and burning plastic filled the cabin, it created more fear in the eyes of the holiday passengers around me. We were all gripped in silence, surrounded by the white noise from the engines that eerily engulfed the plane into a surreal atmosphere. And as the oxygen masks deployed from the ceiling in a familiar, video-esque manner, we all grasped them in fear – trying to figure out how to breathe through the flimsy pieces of plastic. Parents were the most confused – as the masks were too large for their babies’ faces and were not easy to put on in such a panicked situation. The next few minutes passed like seconds – the plane started diving down to a lower level … and fast.
The first moment of some release was the pilot’s voice over the speaker. It had been more than 20 minutes since he last spoke, when he told us we had reached altitude. Now, he told us that we had leveled off at 10K feet and we were heading back to Sea-Tac airport. Again, since I am a pilot – I had many ideas on how and why this happened. This morning I found out that one of my assumptions was correct – there was a hole in the plane that caused the decompression. A hole that could have cost many lives, including my own. The enraging fact is that a non-union baggage handler ran into the side of the plane moments prior to take-off … and that it was never reported.
Thank god for the help of an amazing cabin crew and pilot. Without them, who knows what could have happened.
The worst part for me was the fact that my Fiancee and I were 4 rows apart and she was closer to the rear of the plane where the loud ‘bang’ and Engine noise was coming from; I couldn’t stop thinking of how she felt, and how terrified she must be all alone back there. But as you know Alaska Airlines often ‘oversells’ flights as usual, in an overbooked flight they couldn’t accomodate us.
Ugh…we’ll here are the photos of the incident as I could take them on my Treo 650, sorry about the resolution
Update: Some people have been looking “into” my Civil Aviation Information (Captain X), unfortunately it’s not listed under ‘Jeremy Hermanns’ – my nickname is ‘Jeremy’; but my legal name ‘Robert Jeremiah Hermanns’. For the record: Date of Issue of my FAA Private Pilot Certificate is April 26, 1999. Took my flight test at Van Nuys Airport in a Katana DA-20, and my written at John Wayne in Orange County. Also, I’m a previous AOPA member and Piper Cherokee 140 Owner.
P.S.: I am not editing any comments…the server is being overloaded and not resolving while I’m trying approve them all with this much traffic.
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This has got to the most comments I have ever come accross.
Not to mention the massive number of jerks leaving comments, weird to see you didn’t take the bait and bite back.
All the best
Hi
Interesting blog- wow u are so lucky. I bet you this experience has changed your life.
The best thing we can all do is not fly on airlines like Alaska. Budget and airlines do not mix. THis is not the first incident this airline has had and it wont be the last. I fly Qantas – they are more expensive but I would rather pay for a few bucks more for an airline who respect the need to service its aircraft properly ala the cork screw fiasco, which killed 83 people!!!
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts.
You have a great Blog!!! I just added you to my Google News Reader.
Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Keep up the good work.
Can I ask why you are the only one wearing a mask?? and why you would be standing in the aisle during this emergency??
I have been flight crew for 10 years and can Definitely tell you from experience that during a rapid decompression and descent (especially from 30,000 to 10,000 ft) you cannot be standing in the aisle and neither would the cabin crew.
I do not take away that this incident happened but I know that your photo is totally staged and happened after the emergency was over, hence the reason nobody else has masks on or is even remotely panic stricken. Its sad that people like you, make this all about you and make mountains out of mole hills. Yes I have been in a decompression and following the SEPs (standard emergency procedures) looks nothing like your photos, what REALLY happens (if it is a rapid decompression like he tells) is that the air mists like a fog and yes you CAN still breath but you certainly cant move out your seat and dropping so fast you would be either in the brace position or clinging on….these are pictures taken way after the incident and the picture of Jeremy standing would have been taken after landing because a true emergency of this description would not allow passengers up and about till then…..this would be a mayday call more than likely. If he is up and about during the flight, then it certainly could not be of the magnitude in which he has described it…..would be more of a pressure leak and the masks have automatically deployed because of a drop in pressure but it would not have been the big emergency he has described. Nice publicity for you though. but next time try the truth because the pictures do not match your statement.
Man, I’m sure glad you weren’t on the Reeve Electra flight from Adak to ANC years ago, the one where the prop came off one engin;e, disabled the one next to it, severed the flight controls and caused what the pilot described to Anchorage Center as “a bit of a problem.” After a stressful go-around using the autopilot to fly an airplane which had only one engine responding to throttle changes (two others were stuck in cruise configuration). , the second approach was fast and successful. Without brakes, or steering, the plane rolled to the side of the runway late during the landing rollout.
Like your flight, there were no injuries. I never heard anyone associated with that incident complain about mechanical problems, maintenance, union or non-union pilots, crew, maintenance or ground personnel.
Many years ago, a Western Airlines 747 pilot told me the same thing others have said, “complex equipment breaks.” Get a few more hours as a pilot before you go off firing from the hip, OK?
Reports like yours are what make the Internet a place of public clamor, not carefully considered information. I don’t see where this writeup made the world a better place, do you?
You are awesome.
Horrible isn’t it? As a frequent flyer, I’ve been through a few airplane accidents. Few things in life can shake you more, all you can do is be glad you could walk away from it.
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I’m amazed at all the tough guys reflecting (I’d hate to be as presumptuous as to use embellishing) on their superb bravery from behind the safety and anonymity of a keyboard. Ha-ha. It’s unbelievable that so many people seem to think dropping 20,000 feet in a plane in a matter of seconds would barely be noticed. I’m sure all who have not had that experience have practiced visualization for hours a day, so they’ll be perfectly prepared not to feel a bit of fear and not empty their bladder on the sweet old lady next to them, whom they have a death hold on. Geez. Yawn…Snore….
Wheteher this unfortunate event took place as exactly told, or not at all, I’m still somewhat appalled by the insults of the very brave souls who seem to pooh-pooh the experience of falling 20,000 feet in a plane in a matter of seconds. I’m so proud of the imaginations, delusional bravery, and embellishments of those who would probably be the first to wet themselves and put a death grip hold on some guy who’s trying to think and prepare for the worst. Just the thought of having adrenaline pumping through me faster than blood and the beating this coward is going to get if he didn’t get it together fast – has me laughing at all the insults the author took when he, in fact, did a tremendous job.
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or sthiomeng. I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a little bit, but instead of that, this is fantastic blog. A fantastic read. I’ll definitely be back.
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