A passenger said he “heard a little pop” after take-off
Passengers on board an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle have described how the plane started “vibrating” before it was forced to make an emergency landing on Monday morning.
Flight 558 “reported an unusual vibration on the left side of the aircraft soon after departure,” a representative for the airline said in a statement to CNN, with reports of a “little pop” heard after take-off.
The flight took off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 7:36 am local time and was back at the airport by 8:04 am.
Passenger Greg Anderson was on board Flight 558 on Monday and took photos showing the damage to the plane’s left engine.
Lmao, no one gonna talk about this or is Twitter's algorithm giving me the runaround?
Alaska Airlines 588 had some sort of uh…loss of cowling on its number 1 engine, landed safely in SEA
Glad to see everyone's ok! pic.twitter.com/WXuwNf3w3K
— asminnow.bsky.social (@asminnow) August 23, 2022
He told CNN the plane took off normally and then he “heard a little pop” and felt the plane start to vibrate.
“We slowed way down then the captain came on and said he felt an ‘unusual vibration,’ and we were told he was looking for a place to land,” Anderson said.
No injuries were reported among the 176 passengers and six crew members on board at the time, the Alaska Airlines statement said.
Guests were moved to a new flight to San Diego, which departed about two and a half hours after they got back to the gate, the airline said in an email.
Anderson said he was booked on another flight and got to San Diego about 1:30 p.m.
Alaska Airlines praised the crew onboard.
“The two pilots who operated the flight have more than 32 years of combined flying experience,” the statement said. “They, along with our flight attendants, handled the incident with tremendous professionalism and care.”
According to the airline, the Boeing 737-900ER plane is out of service while a safety team investigates the cause of the issue.
An "unusual vibration" on a busy Alaska Airlines flight ended with a jet engine cover ripping off during an emergency landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. #9News
MORE: https://t.co/9yQvRWxFdt pic.twitter.com/BMBrAuGl5h
— 9News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) August 24, 2022
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