Southwest FLT 812 Decompression and diversion
KCRA 3 Insider
YUMA, Ariz. -- A Southwest flight headed to Sacramento from Phoenix had to be diverted to Yuma, Ariz. on Friday because of rapid decompression caused by a hole in the plane. Sacramento International officials said that Flight 812, a Boeing 737, had 118 passengers aboard and landed safely at Yuma Marine Corps Air Station/International Airport at 4:07 p.m. The airport is a dual-use facility. The plane descended 16,000 feet in a minute, according to the flight-tracking website called flightaware.com.
One passenger said they heard an explosion during the flight and could see daylight coming through a hole in the plane. The KCRA viewer sent in a photo that also shows oxygen masks dropping inside the aircraft.
"The hole is about 6 feet, oxygen masks are down," passenger Brenda Reese told KCRA 3. Reese said she was asleep when the rapid descent took place but heard a jarring noise.
A separate picture sent to KCRA 3 shows the hole above a luggage compartment.
The FAA said they have not confirmed what caused the decompression.
Sacramento airline officials said they have been told that all passengers are safe, and Marine medical personnel went aboard the plane to check on the passengers once they landed in Yuma.
Flight 812 was scheduled to arrive at 5:30 p.m. in Sacramento and is now set to arrive at 8:45 p.m. An FAA inspector is headed from Phoenix to Yuma to conduct an investigation. In July 2009, a Southwest Boeing 737 going from Nashville to Baltimore was forced to make an emergency landing in West Virginia after a foot-long hole opened in the top of the plane. Federal investigators later said that metal fatigue caused the hole to rip open in the roof of the plane. Nobody was injured in that case.
Former United Airlines pilot Jerry Blalock said pilots are trained in rapid decompression cases, and that it appears the pilot of Flight 812 landed the plane in textbook fashion. Reese said passengers started clapping for the pilot when the plane landed.
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Hope the crew is enjoying a well-deserved beer for a great effort.
The reporting wasn't all that bad either.