This actually did happen. An American Eagle ATR was climbing out over Chicago when the rear PAX door blew off. The cabin Depressurized and the FA was nearly sucked out even though she was seated and strapped in. If you search the FAA SDR database, you should be able to find it.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Lpas:
An outfit that I worked for about 10 years ago had an interesting office legend. Our agency Director was notorious for her refusal to fly anywhere. If it was too far to drive she just stayed home. The rumor was that she'd been involved in a harrowing incident several years earlier, but it was something she never talked about (and no one at my level had the guts to ask her about it). Of course, there were lots of rumors about the details but it seemed so far-fetched to me, I always wondered if the story was actually true.
Supposedly, she'd been on a commuter flight between IND and ORD. At some point during the trip one of the doors blew off and someone was sucked out of the plane (or nearly sucked out, depending on the telling). At least one individual was barely saved from this fate by some nearby passengers who grabbed her arms and pulled her back away from the door. Ultimately, the plane landed safely.
Was just curious if any of the long-time road warriors might here recall such an incident? The time frame would have been late 80's to early 90's--I'm guessing maybe an American Eagle flight?
On a similar note, does anyone know how common it is for commerical airliners to suffer an explosive decompression? I seem to recall a major incident on Aloha Airlines some years back, but nothing else. Do these kinds of stories even make the news if there are no fatalities?
[This message has been edited by Lpas (edited Nov 29, 2003).]</font>