A Sichuan Airlines flight headed from China to Tibet had to make an emergency landing after some of the windshield in the cockpit shattered in the middle of the flight. Of course, the sudden pressure loss from being 32,000 feet in the air with the entire right cockpit windshield gone caused huge problems, including one of the pilots being "sucked halfway out the window," according to Reuters.
The aircraft had taken off just 30 minutes before the windshield gave way. According to co-pilot Captain Liu Chuanjian, it was something they didn't see coming at all. "There was no warning sign," he said. "Suddenly, the windshield just cracked and made a loud bang. The next thing I know, my co-pilot had been sucked halfway out of the window."
In addition to his co-pilot's life being in danger, things inside the cockpit were pretty bad as well. "Everything in the cockpit was floating in the air," Captain Chuanjian went on to explain. "Most of the equipment malfunctioned...and I couldn’t hear the radio. The plane was shaking so hard I could not read the gauges."
Even with all of that going on, the plane was able to land safely in another part of China after the break. The unnamed co-pilot was eventually sucked back in, thanks in part to the fact that he was wearing a seatbelt. He only suffered minor injuries including a sprained wrist and a few scratches.
None of the flight's 119 passengers were injured during the incident, but some were understandably a bit shaken up. "We experienced a few seconds of free fall before it stabilized again," an unnamed passenger told China News Service. "I’m still nervous. I don’t dare to take an airplane anymore."
