A Southwest Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing in the US last night after hole appeared in the roof which caused a sudden drop in cabin pressure.
The flight from Phoenix to Sacramento landed safely at a military air base in Arizona. Passengers reportedly heard a bang as a roof panel blew open in the cabin.
“It [air pressure] dropped pretty quick,” said passenger Brenda Reese, who provided mobile phone photographs of the damaged cabin in the Boeing 737.
The pictures show a panel hanging open in a section above the plane’s middle aisle, with a hole of about six feet long.
“It’s at the top of the plane, right up above where you store your luggage,” Ms Reese said by telephone.
“The panel’s not completely off. It’s like ripped down, but you can see completely outside... When you look up through the panel, you can see the sky.”
Ms Reese said the plane had just left Phoenix Sky Harbour International Airport when she awoke after hearing a “gunshot-like sound” in the cabin and oxygen masks dropped for passengers and flight attendants.
At least two people were injured, including a passenger but none of the injuries required hospital treatment.
Ms Reese said a number of people passed out “because they weren’t getting the oxygen”. She said one flight attendant’s oxygen did not work and he fell and suffered a bloody nose.
Ms Reese, a 37-year-old mother of three said there was “no real panic” among the passengers, who applauded the pilot after he emerged from the cockpit following the emergency landing.
Authorities said the plane landed safely at Yuma Marine Corps Air Station/International Airport about 40 minutes after take-off from Sky Harbour.
It was not immediately clear what caused the fuselage to rupture. Southwest said it has grounded 81 of its Boeing 737 aircraft pending an inspection.
"The carrier has decided to keep a subset of its Boeing 737 fleet out of the flying schedule to begin an aggressive inspection effort in co-operation with Boeing engineers," Southwest said.
Agencies