PHOENIX — Flight attendants had just begun to take drink orders when the explosion rocked the cabin.
Aboard Southwest Airlines Flight 812, Shawna Malvini Redden covered her ears, then felt a brisk wind rush by. Oxygen masks fell, the cabin lost pressure and Redden, now suddenly lightheaded, fumbled to maneuver the mask in place.
Then she prayed. And, instinctively, reached out to the stranger seated next to her in Row 8 as the pilot of the damaged aircraft began a rapid descent from about 34,400 feet in the sky.
“I don’t know this dude, but I was like, ‘I’m going to just hold your hand,’ ” Redden, a 28-year-old doctoral student at Arizona State University, recalled Saturday, a day after her Phoenix-to-Sacramento flight was forced into an emergency landing at a military base in Yuma, Ariz., with a hole a few feet long in the roof of the passenger cabin.
No serious injuries were reported among the 118 people aboard, according to Southwest officials.
What caused part of the fuselage to rupture on the 15-year-old Boeing 737-300 was a mystery, and investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived in Yuma on Saturday morning to begin an inquiry.
NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt said investigators were going to cut a piece out of the fuselage, which then would be studied for fracture patterns. Data from the plane’s flight recorders and black boxes also would be examined, he said.
Southwest, meanwhile, grounded about 80 similar planes so they could be inspected and said that as a result, about 300 flights were being canceled Saturday.
Southwest canceled about seven flights coming in and out of Denver International Airport, and several other flights were delayed, according to the airport’s website. Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said the cancellations and delays had a “minimal impact” on airport traffic. Mainz said he did not know how long the airplanes would stay out of commission.
Jeff Green, a spokesman for DIA, said the cancellations and delays did not have an impact on the airport’s operations.
Southwest operates about 170 of the 737-300s in its fleet of about 540 planes, but it replaced the aluminum skin on many of the 300s in recent years, Rutherford said. The planes that were grounded Saturday have not had their skin replaced, she said.
“Obviously, we’re dealing with a skin issue, and we believe that these 80 airplanes are covered by a set of (federal safety rules) that make them candidates to do this additional inspection that Boeing is devising for us,” Rutherford said.
A total of 288 Boeing 737-300s operate in the U.S. fleet, and 931 operate worldwide, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“The FAA is working closely with the NTSB, Southwest Airlines and Boeing to determine what actions may be necessary,” the FAA said in a statement Saturday.
Southwest officials said the Arizona plane had undergone all inspections required by the FAA. They said the plane was given a routine inspection Tuesday and underwent its last so-called heavy check, a more costly and extensive overhaul, in March 2010.
As for Friday’s flight, there was obvious relief when the plane landed safely. And when the pilot emerged after the landing, the atmosphere turned celebratory, Redden said.
“When the pilot came out a little bit later to look at the damage, we clapped and cheered. If overhead bins weren’t in the way, I’m pretty sure we would’ve given him a standing ovation,” she said.
Denver Post staff writer Felisa Cordova contributed to this report.
