Alaska Airlines window panel blows out mid-flight, plane forced to make emergency landing

An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing at the Portland International Airport (PDX) on Friday night after a large panel on the side of the plane blew out mid-flight. According to the flight tracking site FlightAware, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was heading from PDX to Ontario, California. It departed at 4:52 p.m., then had to turn back around; the airplane landed in Portland at 5:27 p.m. — an hour and 20 minutes earlier than its planned arrival in California. A passenger who was on the plane, told KGW that a panel on the side of the plane blew out, taking one of the windows with it, causing a rapid decompression of the cabin. A video posted to TikTok by another passenger, Elizabeth, shows the aftermath, as the plane returns to Portland and lands at PDX. By that point, passengers appeared calm, although they were using oxygen masks. “Everything was going fine until we heard a loud bang ... a boom,“ Elizabeth recalled. “I look up, and the air