Terrifying midair drama: Alaska Airlines flight forced into emergency landing amidst chilling fuselage blowout

An Alaska Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing in Oregon on Friday after a window and a section of its fuselage blew out in mid-air shortly after takeoff. (Photo credit: Twitter)

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, departed Portland at 4:52 pm, but it returned just before 5:30 pm. (Photo credit: Twitter)

A passenger sent KATU-TV a photo showing a gaping hole in the side of the airplane next to passenger seats. Photos sent depicted a large portion of the airplane's fuselage missing. (Photo credit: Twitter)

The plane was diverted after rising to 16,000 feet (4,876 meters) about about six minutes after taking off at 5:07 p.m., according to flight tracking data. (Photo credit: Twitter)

The airline said the plane landed safely with 174 passengers and six crew members. (Photo credit: Twitter)

Alaska said in a statement, "While this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation. We are investigating what happened and will share more information as it becomes available." (Photo credit: Twitter)

The company said, "We are aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. "We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer. A Boeing technical team stands ready to support the investigation." (Representative Photo)

Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci announced the grounding of the airline’s Boeing 737-9 fleet. “Following tonight’s event on Flight 1282, we have decided to take the precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft,” Minicucci said. (Photo credit: Twitter)