Flight attendants tell investigators about terrifying sight of hole in Boeing jet after blowout

The National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday continued its hearings into the Jan. 5 incident in which a fuselage piece blew off the side of the Boeing jet plane with 171 passengers and six crew members aboard.

It was the second and final day of the hearings. On Tuesday, top transportation safety officials asked pointed questions about Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems quality lapses related to Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.

The hearings are a key part of the NTSB’s investigation into the incident.

On Wednesday, Seth Heiple of the Association of Flight Attendants said his friend was a flight attendant on the aircraft and if the plane had been at a higher altitude the situation would have been different.

As the flight landed in Portland, flight attendants asked rattled passengers if anyone had been seated next to what was now a hole in the side of the plane.

The passengers didn’t understand the question, so a flight attendant asked again, more pointedly — had anyone been ejected from the airplane?

“At the point where I first saw the hole, I saw five empty seats,” a flight attendant told National Transportation Safety Board investigators. “So I was absolutely certain that we had lost people out of the hole and that we had casualties.”

More details of the terrifying ordeal were outlined in NTSB documents released this week ahead of the agency’s hearings looking at what occurred on the Alaska Air flight, when a panel blew out of the plane while climbing out of Portland.

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Flight attendants later learned the two closest seats hadn’t been occupied — a rarity since passengers often moved to sit in window seats.

“Those two seats were empty even though I’m sure there would’ve been somebody who would have preferred not to be in a center seat and would have happily taken a window seat,” the flight attendant said. “Thank God they didn’t.”

One flight attendant noted the scenarios that could have led to a far worse outcome in the plane: The passenger in the aisle seat didn’t unbuckle their seat belt and lay down, like a lot of people do. There wasn’t a child sitting on someone’s lap next to the window. A flight attendant hadn’t yet started walking to the back of the cabin to begin beverage service.

“We got so lucky,” the flight attendant said.

Also at Wednesday’s hearing, the NTSB turned toward a deeper look into Boeing’s safety culture.

The agency is planning to conduct a safety culture survey of all employees at Boeing’s Renton factory, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said.

She did not provide details about the survey but stressed she wanted Boeing’s involvement.

“I would like a commitment from Boeing that you will work with us to carry out that safety culture survey, without interference,” she said to the Boeing executives who were panel witnesses. They answered yes.

The NSTB next will move to the analysis phase of the investigation into how and why the blowout occurred.

NTSB specialists will analyze the information gathered from field visits, thousands of pages of interviews and 20 hours worth of testimony from the investigative hearing, according to the agency. The timing isn’t clear — NTSB investigators can still seek additional information after the hearings, Homendy said Wednesday.

Investigations can take up to two years to complete, the NTSB said. The agency determines probable cause for an incident but doesn’t assign fault or blame.