Two days ago my daughter and I were flying home from vacation when a hole tore open in our plane’s roof. The oxygen masks dropped down and we had to make an emergency landing and everything. Luckily the rest of the plane held together and we were able to land quickly.
The crew and passengers did an amazing job. The pilot and co-pilot immediately got us to a safe flying altitude and pointed us toward an airfield. One of the flight attendants briefly lost consciousness and struck his nose but was immediately back up and helping passengers despite his injury. The passengers remained calm and we were all checking on each other to make sure everyone was OK and that we all had our masks on.
Once we were on the ground U.S. Marine EMTs came aboard and provided medical assistance to anyone who needed it. While we waited for Southwest to pull a cold spare 737 from the shelf and send it our way a couple of the passengers kept my daughter entertained. I wondered if the exposed wiring was ARINC 429.
I would like to extend my thanks to everyone involved — the crew, passengers, and first responders for their swift action and calm demeanor throughout the entire experience. Everyone had a job to do and they did it well, supporting each other the whole time.
P.S. The reporters who called at 4:30 and 6:30 the next morning can
Comments 🔗
Comment by Chris Maynard on 2011-04-04 07:20:58 +0000 🔗
Wow Gerald, that had to be quite the experience. Glad everyone is OK and hopefully your daughter doesn’t have any long-term fears of planes and flying as a result.
Southwest is inspecting all their planes now as a result of this incident: http://www.swamedia.com/releases/f0e157e2-3c65-a6ca-163b-30004d98ede3. I sure hope they inspect those planes I’ll be flying to/from Sharkfest ’11 in June extra carefully! 😉
Comment by Joshua Gallagher on 2011-04-05 14:41:22 +0000 🔗
Awesome. You were potentially seconds away from a horrifying death and you’re sitting there wondering if you could slip in a tap to dissect the packets being sent from the cockpit. In all the world, only you would think of that!
Glad you made it home safe.
Comment by Laura Chappell on 2011-04-13 18:37:58 +0000 🔗
Jeepers, Gerald… could it be that someone on that plane was trying to *gasp* SELL a copy of Wireshark to another passenger…? Sniff free or die ya know…
So glad things weren’t worse in that situation! Perhaps we need to make a “swaskylight dissector”?
Comment by Stephen Fisher on 2011-04-19 14:48:26 +0000 🔗
You were on that flight? You’re famous! (not that you weren’t already) I wish I had a cold spare 737 on the shelf. Is there such a thing as a warm or hot spare 737?
Comment by Chris Maynard on 2011-04-26 07:18:52 +0000 🔗
An update: An article in today’s (4/26/2011) NY Times suggests that a rivet manufacturing flaw may be the cause: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/business/26air.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23