There was no hiding the joy tonight as passengers from Southwest flight 812 finally made it to their destination. Made it to Sacramento, California, hugs, kisses, tears, relatives overjoyed at seeing their loved ones. Ashley Man couldn't contained herself, she'd been waiting for hours for her boyfriend ever since receiving a frightening text message. 

 

He sent me a text when he was on the ground, and told me that there was a hole blowing out in the ceiling at the plane, and that he was alright, he did assure me that, but you know, I still don't believe him.

 

The harrowing day began more than 6 hours earlier, the Southwest flight, a Boeing 747 had taken off from Phoenix around 3:45pm local time, 118 passengers on board. Flight attendants had just taken drink orders when passengers reported hearing something unusual, loud pops, several minutes later, the roof opened up, astonished passenger saw a gaping hole perhaps 3-5 feet long and a foot wide right next to the luggage compartment. Aviation sources provided ABC News with these photos of the damage. The plane suffered a rapid decompression. 

 

The top of the plane was ripped off and all of sudden, mask came down and it was pretty frightening.

 

The Southwest pilots radioed air traffic control, they declared an emergency and began a rapid descent, quickly diving to a lower altitude, so passengers would be able to breathe on their own. The jet plunged from 36,000 feet to 19,000 feet in just 1 minute, within 5 minutes, it had reached the safer altitude of 11,000 feet.But some terrified passengers clearly thought this was the end. Pilots though are trained for just such an emergency, and they landed the plane safely at the marine corp air station in Yuma, Arizona. 

 

We are taught to turn of course to bring the engines to idled pull out speed abrasion come down at the maximum rate,that's safe, to get everybody down below 14,000 feet within 4 minutes, that's a requirement. 

 

Passengers thankful to be on the ground called their loved ones, and waited for a new Southwest jet to pick them up and take them on their way. Meantime, investigators from Boeing, the FAA, Southwest, and the NTSP are descending on Arizona to get a first time look at the damage.

 

The biggest concern here is what in the world could have caused this, because first of all, this aircraft is not that old, secondly this is many many years after the things we learned in the 1980s about corrosion control and control of the structure of aging airplanes, and thirdly this is an aircraft that's maintained by one of our most outstanding airlines in terms of maintenance in the country, so you put all those together, and there is no precedent.

 

The jet was built in 1996, it's 15 years old, not ancient by aviation standards, but Southwest planes get a big workout, they do many takeoffs and landings a day. That puts stress on the metal fuselage. Two years ago, a hole opened up in the fuselage of another Southwest airplane, a jet also 15 years old. Investigators blamed fatigue cracks, and Boeing ordered extra inspections for its 747s. It was back in 1988 that aviation officials first realize that age could take a toll on the plane skin after the roof peeled back on an Aloha flight, one flight attendant was killed, but for tonight there was simple thankfulness that no one was seriously hurt, that everyone got home safely.