Emergency at 3 miles high: Alaska Airlines pilots, passengers kept calm after fuselage blowout

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The emergency began with a bang three miles above Oregon.

The first six minutes of Friday's Alaska Airlines flight 1282 from Portland to Southern California's Ontario International Airport had been routine, the Boeing 737 Max 9 about halfway to its cruising altitude and traveling at more than 400 mph.

As the plane climbed, the cabin's air pressure steadily increased, a normal occurrence in comparison to the rapidly thinning air outside. The plane's four flight attendants and 171 passengers sat strapped in their seats, nearly filling it to its 178-passenger capacity.

Then boom.