California-bound plane makes emergency landing after losing window midair

An Alaska Airlines flight bound for Southern California was forced to turn around and make an emergency landing after a hole opened in the side of the plane shortly after taking off Friday night.

Flight 1282 left Portland International Airport in Oregon around 5 p.m. headed toward Ontario, with 171 passengers and six crew members on board, according to the airline.

While the plane was gaining altitude, a window and part of the plane’s wall blew out, according to social media reports. Alaska Airlines described the event as “an incident” and said the plane turned around and safely landed back in Portland.

“The safety of our guests and employees is always our primary priority, so while this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement Friday night. “We are investigating what happened and will share more information as it becomes available.”

FlightAware, a public airplane tracker, listed the total flight length as 35 minutes.

A video posted to TikTok by a passenger on the flight showed a panel on the left side of plane missing, with insulation foam visible. Oxygen masks were deployed from the ceiling.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.