Flight attendants tell investigators about the horrifying sight of a hole in a Boeing jet after a tire burst

Updated: 1 an hour ago ^ Published: 1 an hour ago ^

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) continued its hearings on Wednesday into the January 5 incident in which a fuselage section was blown off the side of the Boeing plane with 171 passengers and six crew members on board.

It was the second and final day of the hearings. On Tuesday, senior transportation safety officials asked pointed questions about Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems’ quality deficiencies in connection with Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.

The hearings are an important part of the NTSB’s investigation into the incident.

On Wednesday, Seth Heiple of the Association of Flight Attendants said his friend was a flight attendant on board the plane and if the plane had been flying at a higher altitude, the situation would have been different.

When the flight landed in Portland, flight attendants asked the confused passengers if anyone had been sitting next to the hole in the side of the plane.

The passengers did not understand the question, so a flight attendant asked again and more clearly: “Was anyone thrown off the plane?”

“When I first saw the hole, I saw five empty seats,” a flight attendant told National Transportation Safety Board investigators. “So I was absolutely certain that we had lost people through the hole and that there were injuries.”

Further details of this horrific ordeal were laid out in NTSB documents released this week ahead of the agency’s hearings into the events on the Alaska Air flight when a panel blew off the plane as it climbed out of Portland.

(The FAA has doubled its enforcement action against Boeing after a door stopper came off during an Alaska Airlines flight)

The flight attendants later learned that the two closest seats were unoccupied – a rarity since passengers often switched to window seats.

“Those two seats were empty, although there was probably someone who would have preferred not to sit in the middle seat and would have preferred a window seat,” said the flight attendant. “Thank God that wasn’t the case.”

A flight attendant pointed out scenarios that could have led to far worse consequences on the plane: The aisle passenger had not unbuckled his seatbelt and laid down, as many people do. There was no child sitting on someone’s lap by the window. A flight attendant had not yet made her way to the back to begin beverage service.

“We were so lucky,” said the flight attendant.

At Wednesday’s hearing, the NTSB also took a closer look at Boeing’s safety culture.

The agency plans to conduct a safety culture survey of all employees at Boeing’s Renton plant, said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy.

She did not provide details about the survey, but stressed that she wanted Boeing to participate.

“I want a commitment from Boeing that you will work with us to conduct this safety culture investigation without interference,” she told Boeing executives who were on the panel as witnesses. They answered “yes.”

Next, the NSTB will move on to the analysis phase of the investigation to determine how and why the blowout occurred.

NTSB specialists will analyze information from the on-site visits, thousands of pages of interviews and 20 hours of testimony from the hearing, the agency said. The timing is not yet clear – NTSB investigators may also obtain additional information after the hearings, Homendy said Wednesday.

The NTSB said the investigation could take up to two years. The agency determines the probable cause of an incident but does not assign blame.