Missing door ‘plug’ ripped off Alaska Airlines plane in mid-air horror FOUND by teacher named Bob in his garden

THE missing part of the Alaska Airlines plane that blew off mid-flight has been found.

A school teacher named Bob found the missing Boeing 737 Max 9 fuselage door plug in his garden in Portland, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

Passenger oxygen masks hang from the roof next to the missing door on the Alaska Airlines flightCredit: Reuters

The huge hole in the side of the plane after the door ripped off mid-flightCredit: KPTV

National Transportation Safety Board investigator John Lovell examines the damageCredit: Reuters

The Cedar Hills neighbourhood of Portland where investigators were searching for the missing part of the planeCredit: AP

Investigators had been searching for the door plug since it blew off the Alaska Airlines plane at 16,000 feet after taking off from Portland on Friday.

The agency had asked for the public’s help finding the part and had planned to use a helicopter or drones to continue the search.

Jennifer Homendy, head of the National Transportation Safety Board, said locating the missing part would provide key clues as to why it was torn off the plane.

Investigators are now preparing to interview the flight crew, she said.

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Stunned passengers described seeing a large section of the plane blown out mid-air with dramatic pictures of the aftermath showing a gaping hole in its side.

One passenger told Fox News affiliate KPTV a child had to be held in his seat by his mum as people lost their phones as they were sucked out of the plane.

Another child closest to the damage lost his shirt due to the violent depressurisation.

Shocking footage on TikTok captured the chaos, showing passengers using emergency oxygen masks as the plane was still in the air.

Part of the missing plane was seen in the video with the night sky visible just a few feet from where people were sitting.

Passenger Nicholas Hoch said horrified passengers screamed “there’s a f*****g hole” amid the chaos.

Hoch, who sat ten rows ahead of the hole, heard a “big boom” before oxygen masks dropped instantly in front of him.

“That was followed instantaneously by a rapid depressurisation of the cabin that consisted of moisture and fluid – almost like a cloud rushing from the front of the plane to the back,” he told Sky News.

He added: “A few people stood up on the flight and were yelling some obscenities – shouting ‘there’s an f*****g hole’.”

While the plane “fluttered” and the lights “flickered”, the frightened passengers were left in the dark about the impending emergency landing, he said.

Hoch said other people around him were “mostly calm” but the whole atmosphere on board felt “eerie”.

His hat flew off and the people in front of him had their hair “pushed back”.

Chilling air traffic control audio revealed the moment staff reported an emergency.

“Yes, we are an emergency,” a member of staff said.

“We are depressurised, we do need to return back to… we have 177 passengers.”

The cockpit voice recorder was found to be overwritten by the time investigators recovered it as it was not retrieved within two hours, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

Alaska Airlines said crew on board were “trained and prepared” to deal with the situation and that the incident was extremely rare.

The Boeing 737 Maxs are the most commonly used aircraft for commercial flights in the world – with more than 1,160 in active use.

Back in 2019, the crisis-hit jets sparked safety fears after two fatal air crashes and were eventually grounded across EU airspace.

The following year debris was also found in the fuel tanks of planes kept in storage – with the head of Boeing’s 737 programme telling employees the discovery was “absolutely unacceptable”.

The planes were eventually allowed to take off in late 2020 after upgrades were made to their jets.

And Friday’s incident happened after pilots reported pressurisation warning lights on three earlier flights of the same model – one in December and two in January.