(Bloomberg) – When even a small hole suddenly opens in a jetliner flying miles above the Earth, it unleashes hurricane-like forces. Everything that's not strapped down flies toward the opening. The wind can easily lift a person up and out of the plane.
These terrifying episodes are rare but when the occur — such as on Tuesday when a Southwest Airlines Co. plane lost a window at 32,500 feet, killing a woman who was partly sucked out of the cabin — they have led to grisly results.
“That's why they call it an explosive decompression,” said Nora Marshall, a former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator who specialized in cabin safety and accident survival. “It is extremely forceful. The differential in pressure, it's very, very significant.”
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