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- Emma Vu was flying to California with Alaska Airlines when a gaping hole appeared in the fuselage.
- She described her terror at being "jolted awake" as the plane dropped.
- Vu sent panicked messages to her family, saying: "Please I don't want to die."
A passenger who was on board Alaska Airlines flight 1282 when a hole opened up in the fuselage of the Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft has spoken about her terrifying experience.
Emma Vu said she was asleep in seat 18B when she felt a sudden drop and was "jolted awake."
The flight took off on Friday from Portland, Oregon, on its way to California when a chunk of its fuselage blew off at around 16,000 feet, leaving a large hole in the side of the plane.
"I woke up to the plane just falling and I knew it was not just normal turbulence because the masks came down, and that's when the panic definitely started to set it," Vu said in an interview with CNN.
Vu added that she was unable to see the part of the plane where the incident took place as it was behind her.
"We just depressurized, we're declaring an emergency. We need to descend down to 10,000. We just need to depressurize...and we need to return back to Portland," an Alaska Airlines pilot told air traffic control, according to audio shared by The Associated Press.
As the situation unfolded, Vu sent terrified texts to her family, according to a now-removed TikTok seen by the Daily Mail.
"The masks r down; I am so scared right now; Please pray for me; Please I don't want to die," she messaged them.
"A toddler's shirt flew off, and their phone flew out the window," she added in the TikTok. "It was just so surreal."
Vu said that her memory of the incident was blurry, but she wanted to thank the passengers around her and a flight attendant for trying to keep her calm.
"I am so grateful for the two ladies who sat to either side of me," she told CNN. "They were rubbing my back, giving me comfort."
After alerting air traffic control, the pilot calmly guided the plane back to Portland International Airport where it made an emergency landing.
No one was seriously injured in the incident.
Vu told CNN that Alaska Airlines had sent an apology email to passengers and had promised to reimburse the cost of the ticket while also offering an additional $1,500 payment for "any inconvenience."
Alaska Airlines has grounded its entire fleet of Boeing 737-9 MAX planes following the incident.
In a statement on its website, Boeing said: "Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers. We agree with and fully support the FAA's decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane. In addition, a Boeing technical team is supporting the NTSB's investigation into last night's event. We will remain in close contact with our regulator and customers."
Boeing's 737 MAX planes have proved to be a major issue for the company over the last few years.
The entire fleet was grounded in 2019 following two crashes that killed around 350 people.