Airline Pilot Sucked Halfway Out Of Cockpit Window Somehow Survives

The airline industry has taken a couple of big hits lately as a pair of terrifying incidents have brought the industry some negative press. First a passenger on a Southwest flight lost her life after and engine failed and damaged the fuselage, resulting in the passenger being partially pulled from the plane. Now, a Chinese airline has nearly lost a pilot to a similar – but notably different, as discussed in the video below – incident.

The plane, an Airbus A-319 operated by Sichuan Airlines, had a section of the front windshield blow out at a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet. The subsequent wind inside the cockpit pulled one of the co-pilots partially out of the window, despite the fact that he was buckled into his chair.

The pilot acted quickly to slow the plane and lower its altitude while the co-pilot struggled to return to the cockpit safely. The passengers were obviously terrified when the oxygen masks dropped and the plane began a sharp descent, but thankfully none of the passengers were injured during the incident.

The co-pilot survived the ordeal in surprisingly good fashion, suffering only cuts and bruises and a sprained wrist despite being pulled out of the windshield at several hundred miles per hour. The pilot and crew were praised for their quick thinking in getting the plane on the ground safely and keeping a bad situation from getting much worse.

The cause of the windshield’s failure is under investigation. It was assumed to be a bird strike, but according to the video, those are very rare at such high altitudes. We will keep an eye out for any further information, as we certainly want to be aware of what might cause something like this in the future. Hopefully this will be the last of the bad news for the airlines for a while.