Teen left topless after shirt 'sucked off' on Alaska Airlines flight from Portland

A 15-year-old boy, who was on board Alaska Airlines' Flight 1282, had his shirt "sucked off" when the Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet lost a door-sized section of its fuselage six minutes after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, one of the flight's passengers' Kelly Bartlett said on Instagram.

"Friday night I was on the plane from Portland in which a wall panel blew out fifteen minutes into our flight," wrote Bartlett. "We had just passed 10,000 feet when there was a loud boom and the plane filled with wind and noise and the oxygen masks dropped. Three rows behind me was a hole in the side of the plane."

Bartlett said that there was "total chaos for a couple of minutes" as everyone scrambled to secure themselves and those sitting in the row of the missing wall "found new seats on the other side of the plane".

"There was one open seat next to me, and a 15-year-old kid jumped over me, sat down, and grabbed the mask," wrote the artist. "He had no shirt on because it had been sucked off when the panel blew."

The teenager, Jack, had been sitting in the middle seat of that row, while his mother was in the aisle seat, according to Bartlett. The window seat was unoccupied.

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Redness and scratches

Bartlett said that she was unable to talk to Jack because of the noise so she used hand gestures and the notes app on her phone to communicate with him and check if was doing okay. Though Jack said that he was fine, Bartlett said that he had redness and scratches on his skin, which could have been caused by windburn.

About 15 minutes later the plane made an emergency landing in Portland.

"After only the first few minutes of chaos, the plane was under control and we knew we were descending back to PDX," wrote Bartlett. "I never felt like we were going to crash. It was windy and loud in the plane, but everyone was calm, and we landed safely within 15 minutes."

Bartlett said that Jack was mostly concerned about his mom and the two reunited when the flight landed in Portland.

Meanwhile, paramedics arrived at the scene as soon as the flight landed and went on board to treat those who sustained injuries, mostly minor, according to Bartlett.

"Then we all got off the plane just like normal, no need for emergency slides…just walked out the jetway as usual," said Bartlett, adding that Jack wanted to take a selfie “to commemorate the experience”!

Speaking to the Associated Press, Bartlett praised the crew and staff for responding "well to the situation" and keeping everything under control.

“The flight attendants really responded well to the situation," Bartlett told AP. "They got everyone safe and then they got themselves safe. And then there was nothing to do but wait, right? We were just on our way down and it was just a normal descent. It felt normal.”

National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy, in a press conference Sunday night, also praised the flight crew, calling their actions "really incredible".

“The actions of the flight crew were really incredible,” the NTSB chair, Jennifer Homendy, said at a Sunday night news conference. She described the scene inside the cabin during those first seconds as “chaos, very loud between the air and everything going on around them and it was very violent”.

Intact iPhone found: Debris surface from Alaska Airlines' forced landing

Bartlett was later rebooked on another flight to Corona, California and safely made it there the same night.

"It was crazy and scary, and I am so thankful it was not a worse situation," said Bartlett. "Everyone was safe and relatively uninjured."

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282

177 passengers and crew, including Bartlett, were on board the Alaska Airlines' flight, which was at an altitude of 16,300 feet when the fuselage unit gave way, but fortunately no one was seriously injured. The flight was en route to Ontario, California, roughly 40 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, from Portland.

Passengers on board the flight described a loud, chaotic and violent scene of wind howling through the plane, after the wall panel broke off. The cockpit door was flung open and the wind tore the headset from the copilot. The pilot's headset was pulled halfway off. Crew and passengers donned oxygen masks.

Investigation ongoing

Aviation authorities, including the NTSB are investigating the incident.

A key piece of evidence, the torn-off section known as a “door plug,” was recovered Sunday near Portland by a schoolteacher. Investigators will examine the 63-pound, 48-by-26-inch plug to determine why it separated from the plane.

Two cellphones, believed to be from the plane, were also found nearby.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Teen on Alaska Airlines flight left topless after shirt 'sucked off'