Passengers’ horror as American Airlines plane ‘buckles’, makes emergency landing

A DALLAS-bound American Airlines flight that departed from San Francisco Inteational Airport has tued around and made an emergency landing after some of the cabin’s wall panels cracked loose, aviation and airlines officials say.

The captain of the Boeing 757 decided to tu around an hour into the flight on Monday to Dallas/Fort Worth Inteational Airport because of a possible blown air duct, American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said.

Flight 2293 departed from SFO shortly before 1pm and landed without incident at about 2.15pm. No one on the plane with 184 passengers and six crew members was hurt, he said.

Even though the plane’s problem is related to pressurisation the cabin did not lose pressure and oxygen masks did not deploy, Miller said.

James Wilson, of Kyle, Texas, said he and his fellow passengers knew there was a problem within minutes after the flight’s takeoff from San Francisco.

Wow! One of my Facebook friends James Wilson's flight had to emergency land! The cabin depressurized!?!? Insane! pic.twitter.com/T3fe86xOOh — Ryan Eversley (@RyanEversley) October 13, 2014

Wilson, 32, an amateur race car driver retuing from a competition in Northe Califoia, said they felt the fuselage violently shake and heard popping noises coming from outside of the Boeing as it made its initial ascent.

Then they watched in horror and screamed for the flight attendants to come as interior panels on both sides of the aircraft pulled apart from the walls.

Passenger James Wilson asked his Facebook friends to 'pray for us' after the plane 'started coming apart'

James Wilson said crew members were ‘pulling the panels apart and looking for daylight behind there'

An American Airlines spokesman says a blown air duct is being investigated as the possible cause 

Crew members were “pulling the panels apart and looking for daylight behind there,” Wilson said.

Over the conces of nervous passengers, the captain announced that the flight would continue on to Dallas because the pressure inside the cabin was stable, but he changed his mind and decided to make the emergency landing after he saw the damaged panels for himself, according to Wilson.

“We had some very professional flight attendants and they did a very good job keeping people calm. They said, ‘It’s just cosmetic’,” he said.

The FAA will work with the airline to determine the plane’s problem, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.