A Sichaun airlines flight made an emergency landing on Monday after one of the cockpit doors blew off.
Captain Liu Chuanjian's co-pilot, who is unnamed, was sucked halfway out of the plane during the incident, which occurred at cruising altitude of 32,000ft.
The captain heard a deafening sound in the cockpit before noticing a sudden loss of temperature and pressure. When he looked up, he saw that his co-pilots windshield was shattered and that the co-pilot himself was on the verge of being blasted out of the aircraft, only able to pull himself back in because he was wearing a seatbelt.
"There was no warning sign. Suddenly, the windshield just cracked and made a loud bang. The next thing I know, my co-pilot had been sucked halfway out of the window. Everything in the cockpit was floating in the air. Most of the equipment malfunctioned … and I couldn’t hear the radio. The plane was shaking so hard I could not read the gauges," said Captain Chaunjian of the accident.
The duo have been hailed as heroes after manually landing the Airbus A319 in China and ensuring that none of the 119 passengers on the flight were injured. The co-pilot sucked out of the window suffered a sprained wrist and scratches, whilst one other member of the crew was injured during the descent, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
One of the unharmed passengers told China News Service of their ordeal: "The crew were serving us breakfast when the aircraft began to shake. We didn’t know what was going on and we panicked. Then the oxygen masks dropped… We experienced a few seconds of free fall before it stabilised again.
"I’m still nervous. I don’t dare to take an airplane anymore. But I’m also happy I had a narrow escape."
An investigation has been launched into what exactly went wrong on the flight, which was journeying from Chongqing, China to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.
