Here's another reason to wear your seat belts throughout an airline flight,
not just during takeoff and landing.
Southwest Airlines Flight 812 experienced rapid cabin depressurization
after a section of the fuselage of a Boeing 737 was blown out. I've been on
planes that experienced a rapid descent of a few thousand feet but this plane
dropped rapidly from 36,000 feet to 11,000 feet.
Kudos to the flight crew for retaining control after depressurization and
making a safe landing.
In 1988 there was an incident in Hawaii of explosive depressurization that
blew out part of the roof of an airliner. Aloha Airlines Flight 243 was at
24,000 feet at the time. That Boeing 737-200 had a larger hole than the
Southwest plane and an Aloha flight attendant standing near row 5 was sucked
out of the plane.
Two 737s with structural failures that led to rapid
depressurization. Perhaps it's time for the FAA to order an inspection of all
737s
