It was nothing short of a nightmare for as many as 174 passengers and six crew members of the Alaska Airlines when its California-bound flight lost a section of its fuselage mid-air.

“The wind would be rushing through that cabin. It was a probably pretty violent situation and definitely a scary situation,” an air safety expert, Anthony Brickhous, said. “I can’t imagine what these passengers experienced. It would have been loud.”

Footage on social media showed the rear mid-cabin exit door wall missing on the plane and passengers were holding onto their seats.

The mid-flight incident prompted the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 to make an emergency landing in Oregon state of the US.

“I open up my eyes and the first thing I see is the oxygen mask right in front of me. And I look to the left and the wall on the side of the plane is gone. The first thing I thought was, ‘I’m going to die,” a 22-year-old passenger told the New York Times.

Some of the passengers described it as a “nightmare”. It merits here to mention that the airline is among the top safest airlines in the world, according to AirlineRatings.com, an airline safety and product rating review site.

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“Following tonight’s event on Flight 1282, we have decided to take the precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing MAX-9 aircraft,” Ben Minicucci, the CEO of Alaska Airlines, said in a statement shared on X.

The airlines anticipated that all inspections would be completed in the next few days.

“We are working with Boeing and regulators to understand what occurred tonight, and will share updates as more information is available,” he said.