Cuong Tran has everything of a survivor.
This Californian, who spoke to the BBC this Monday, was one of the 117 occupants of the tumultuous Alaska Airlines flight 1282, during which a door of the Boeing 737-9 Max tore off on January 5.
This 40-year-old man, sitting with his friend one row from the faulty door, was injured in the leg, but could well have stayed there.
When the door tore off, shortly after takeoff, when the aircraft had reached a height of 3,000 m (16,000 feet), “I remember my body heaving,” recounts Cuong Tran, who decided to file a complaint.
Then my lower body was sucked in from the outside.
» He continues: “I was clinging to my life.
Both of my shoes ended up getting vacuumed.
» Before them, his socks had also been caught when the cabin was depressurized.
“It was probably the first time in my life that I felt like I couldn't control everything.
I was incredulous about the situation,” adds the forty-year-old, who claims to have met the looks of the other passengers, just as panicked.
His phone ended up, like his shoes, also being snatched from the outside.
Today, this man believes that he only owed his safety to his seat belt.
“I have a big scar on my leg”
The plane finally turned around and made an emergency landing in Portland, where it had just left, and emergency services quickly intervened with the passengers.
But the time that passed seemed like an eternity.
“I no longer had a phone, so I had no idea of the time,” he describes.
So I sat there, staring at the gaping hole, hoping there wouldn't be more damage.
»
Today, Cuong Tran is doing better.
“My body is recovering, but I have a big scar on my leg.
I don’t know if it will disappear at some point,” he tells the BBC.
The man therefore decided to sue, like other passengers, the airline Alaska Airlines, but also the manufacturer Boeing and the manufacturer Spirit Aerosystems, believing that this accident caused him, in addition to his physical injury, "a severe emotional distress, fear and anxiety.
He is seeking damages.
According to information from the New York Times, the plane, a Boeing 737 Max 9, was to undergo a security check on the day of the tragedy.
Airline engineers had noticed a potential failure in the pressurization system the day before.
Alerts in previous weeks
Extensive evidence of a potential problem with the plane had been accumulating for days or even weeks, interviews with the airline and findings of the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) investigation revealed to try to understand how the door could have been torn off.
VIDEO.
United States: the door of a Boeing 737 Max which detached in mid-flight was found in a garden
In addition to the flashing light signals, the investigation revealed that "four bolts intended to prevent the cap holder from moving upwards were missing before it moved."
Before the NTSB report was released, Alaska had already reported "loose equipment" after preliminary inspections.
This new incident has once again focused attention on Boeing's manufacturing process and the safety procedures followed by airlines.
After production problems reported throughout 2023, the American manufacturer is in the hot seat.
It has in fact experienced other episodes of failure and in particular had to slow down its deliveries due to problems on the fuselage, in particular on the rear watertight bulkhead of the aircraft.
In 2018 and 2019 two crashes of this model resulted in 346 deaths.