Unfriendly Skies

Two Flights Make Emergency Landings

Masks failed to deploy in both cases.

A Southwest Airlines jet was flying at 36,000 feet from Phoenix to Sacramento on Friday when a hole ripped open in the fuselage, rapidly decompressing the cabin and forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing at a military airfield. No one was injured, but several people are reported to have passed out when the emergency oxygen masks failed to work. Meanwhile, in an unrelated event, an American Airlines 737 going from Washington, D.C. to Chicago changed course after its cabin failed to pressurize properly, causing some passengers to feel faint and dizzy. The emergency masks didn't deploy properly on the American Airlines flight, either, and an airline spokesman said four may have briefly fainted.