joepercussion1

UA6183 operated by Mesa. Tail N88327. Appears to be a loss of cabin pressure at 30,000 feet. Appears they were re-accommodated on Tail N86311 to continue down to SAT. Originated at IAD.

Video with information: http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2...47cd21e473180a

Quite a rapid descent it appears: http://www.flightradar24.com/data/ai...88327/#8e9f800

kcspinney

I was on this flight. About an hour before our scheduled landing in SAT, pressure in the cabin changed dramatically and you could feel the physical effects. Then very quickly, the oxygen masks dropped, lights on the exterior of the plane began to flash red and the flight attendants quickly mobilized to the front of the aircraft. The descent was very sudden but after about 5 minutes we were told we could remove our masks and we were to be diverted to DFW. Upon arrival at the gate, the Fire Department and EMS were onboard. One lap infant was asked to be looked at. After we disembarked, we were told that our flight crew did not wish to reboard another plane and carry onto SAT so a different crew was going to be asked to continue the flight to SAT. I am not sure if that happened as I left the airport and decided to stay the night in Dallas.

davidviolin

happened to me once on a SAS 737 last year. Not a pleasant experience, glad everyone was OK.

spearsba

Happened to me on a UA ERJ-145 DEN to HSV in March 2012. After take off my ears kept popping. About an hour out of DEN the pilot to told the FA to sit down. He went into a fairly steep dive. The mask never deployed. After he leveled off at a low altitude. He came on to tell us we had a cabin pressure issue and would have to land, in Wichita. Luckily there was another ERJ-145 at ICT that we continued on home.

whitethunder

Wow scary story for those of use who fly RJ's most of the time, glad no-one had any serious medical issues, nice piloting!!

toomer

I was on this flight too - 4D in first class. Pretty much everything was as you described. I noticed significant sudden pressurization difference in my ears ... didn't think much about it because I was working on my laptop ... then the masks dropped and I realized we were still at 30k. Scary.

Got to SAT eventually by having them re-ticket me onto an AA flight.

mduell

6 minutes in total to dive 24,000 ft - descent rate maxed out a little over 7000 fpm.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N.../KDFW/tracklog

toomer

That seems about right. The local NBC affiliate in Dallas reported it as descending 20,000 feet in "moments" but if I'd had to guess the time, it felt like about 7-9 minutes from when the air masks dropped until we clearly leveled off at 10k.

Thanks for finding the link on that!

DenverBrian

I don't understand this nugget. There are lights outside the plane that go red when cabin pressure is lost?

dank0014

Not sure if I follow? Cabin pressure lost happens on wide body planes just as well.

thejaredhuang

I'm thinking its external emergency lighting.

I found a tidbit of it here:
http://www.risingup.com/fars/info/part25-812-FAR.shtml

toomer

I was confused by this as well. I was on the flight, I don't remember red lights. But I was up in the first class cabin, well forward of the wings ... so passengers in coach may have been more likely to see it if it happened.

clubord

There's no external red lights that turn on in an emergency...

The only red lights on the outside of the plane are the beacon and the left wing position light. Those are always on in flight.

toomer

So does anyone in here know how I may be able to eventually find out what went wrong with the plane? Given the sudden rush in of cold air that the woman in the seat next to me reported ... I am wondering if this ended up being structural, not just a failure of the systems that maintain internal air pressure.

Folks here seem to know a lot more about looking into this stuff than I do (the links above are great) - just wondering if there's somewhere I will eventually be able to learn what happened to me.

I found FAA and NTSB incident pages, but neither seem to have info as of yet - not sure if this would be the best source and I just need to wait until things are filed, or if there are other sources I should look at.

http://www.asias.faa.gov/pls/apex/f?p=100:93:0::NO::: (nothing yet as of 27-Feb)
http://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.av...th=2&year=2016 (nothing yet as of 27-Feb)

mduell

Almost certainly pressurization rather than structural. Passenger reports about pretty much anything are notoriously inaccurate and imprecise. For example, in a depressurization there's no rush in of air like "the woman" reported.

NTSB will probably provide an update in about a month with a number of details, and their complete report in about a year.