Desperate mum grabbed son so he wouldn’t get sucked out of plane when door blew off

A terrified mum had to grab onto her son to stop him being sucked out of a huge hole in the side of a plane.

She grappled him and held onto him with all her strength as his shirt and jacket were ripped off his body and sucked out into the void.

The Alaska Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing after the side of the fuselage blew out at 16,000ft, sucking seats and other items out of the plane.

The US has now grounded all Boeing 737 Max jets in response to the horrific incident which left passengers terrified – though thankfully nobody was injured.

But one passenger has shared how the outcome of the incident could have been very different, as her teenage son was close to being sucked out of the plane.

The boy, a 15-year-old high school student, was in the window seat directly in front of where the plane’s fuselage blew out.

His mum, a 50-year-old lawyer, asked to be identified by only her middle name, Faye, to avoid being inundated with media calls and protect her son’s identity.

She said the moment the Boeing’s fuselage blew out sounded like ‘a bomb exploding’, and as the air in the cabin rushed out, she saw her son’s seat twisting backwards towards the hole as its headrest was ripped off.

Faye told the Seattle Times: ‘He and his seat were pulled back and towards the exterior of the plane in the direction of the hole. I reached over and grabbed his body and pulled him towards me over the armrest.

‘I was probably as filled with adrenaline as I’ve ever been in my life.

‘I had my arms underneath his arm, kind of hooked under his shoulders and wrapped around his back.

‘I did not realize until after the flight that his clothing had been torn off of his upper body.’

As the plane’s oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling, a stranger who was sat next to Faye in the aisle seat put on her own mask before reaching over to put the mask on her son.

She then turned Faye’s head to put a mask on her as well, before grabbing onto Faye as she in turn kept a tight grip on her son.

Faye added: ‘We were both holding on to my son. I was just holding him and saying repeatedly, “It’s OK. It’s OK. It’s OK, buddy. It’s OK. It’s OK.”

‘I could see his back. My mind just assumed his shirt had been pulled up by me grabbing him. I did not know that it had been torn off. It didn’t even occur to me.’

Following the initial rush of air and pressure, Faye was terrified that another panel might pop out of the plane and tried shouting to her neighbour that they had to move – but she couldn’t hear her.

But thankfully, after spotting her son’s bag on the floor, she realised there was no longer a danger of being pulled out of the hole.

Until that point, Faye hadn’t seen a flight attendant, so she pressed the call button and recalled the ‘shock on her face’ when the attendant arrived, adding: ‘I remember thinking she didn’t know there was a hole in this plane.’

They were moved to different seats further along the plane, and some passengers had no idea about the hole until she told them.

‘When the plug blew out, I was in go mode. Of course I was terrified. But I’m a mother. And that terror doesn’t occur to you when you’re looking at your child next to a hole in a plane,’ Faye said.

‘It’s about “I gotta get my kid out of here immediately”. The terror set in when I was reseated.

‘I am not a religious person. I prayed for the people in that plane. I don’t know that I’ve ever prayed in my life. But I did.’

The plane landed safely about 15 minutes after the blowout, and emergency responders came aboard and saw that Faye’s son was injured. They told her to grab whatever belongings she could and leave with her son.

Both Faye and her son were injured but didn’t require urgent medical attention.

She added: ‘In crisis situations, I am not one to panic. I slipped up a couple of times.

‘When the pilot came out, I lost my composure. When I saw the passenger who had been seated next to me, I lost my composure.’

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