First officer of Boeing ‘door panel’ flight was in ‘shock and disbelief’ after the incident

The first officer of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 that made an emergency landing in Portland on January 6 said she “was in shock and disbelief” when the plane landed. A door panel of the Boeing 737-9 blew out in mid-flight shortly after takeoff.

CBS News had an exclusive interview with First Officer Emily Wiprud, making her first public comments about the incident.

Wiprud said that when the door blew, “I knew immediately that we just depressurized. It was an explosion in my ears and then a woosh of air. My body was forced forward. There was a loud bang as well.”

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She struggled to hear while communicating with air traffic controllers about the urgent need to return to Portland International Airport.

However, Wiprud didn’t know they lost a door panel until the plane made a safe landing in Portland.

“I opened the flight deck door and I saw calm, quiet, with hundreds of eyes staring right back at me,” she said. “I looked at my flight attendants and I said, ‘Are you ok?’ and in that response, they said there were four to five empty seats and injuries.”

Wiprud initially thought those seats had been occupied and that some passengers had been sucked out of the plane.

More Boeing news: Airlines say they found loose parts in door panels during inspections of Max 9 jets

“I was so thankful,” she said. “I was in shock and disbelief that everyone was there. Everybody survived.”

Wiprud is already back on the job and is being honored with an award from Air Line Pilots Association on Thursday.

“My captain was a hero,” she said. “My flight attendants are heroes.”

When asked if she were confident in the Boeing 737, Mirud said she was.

Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here.