Attendant Nearly Swept Out of Plane as Door Blows Off

Passengers clutched a flight attendant to keep her from being swept out of an American Eagle commuter plane when the cabin door blew off minutes after taking off.

The French-made Super ATR with 64 people aboard immediately returned to O’Hare International Airport late Sunday. The flight attendant suffered bruises on her arms and legs.

“There were swishing noises and horrible screams from the attendant: ‘Help me! Help me!’ ” Bonnie Werntz, a South Bend, Ind., police lieutenant who was sitting four rows back, told the South Bend Tribune.

The cause of the accident was under investigation.

The plane, bound for South Bend, was about 700 feet above the ground and two or three minutes into the flight when the door came off over the Chicago suburbs, said Michael Benson of the National Transportation Safety Board. Flight attendant Megan Vargas was sitting near the door.

“She grabbed onto my arm so she wouldn’t be blown out the door. Other passengers got out of their seats to help her,” passenger Kathryn Cruz told WGN-TV.

Vargas, 20, of Chicago was treated at a hospital and released Monday. A passenger complained of chest pains but also was released after examination.

Vargas has an unlisted number and didn’t return a message left Monday with her Washington-based union.

The 6-foot-by-3-foot, 400-pound metal door was found Monday evening in the Des Plaines River, in a suburban area about 2 miles north of the airport, Benson said.

The twin-engine, turboprop ATR was delivered to American Eagle in April and had been flown for 650 hours, said Mitch Baranowski, an American Eagle spokesman in Ft. Worth.

Last year, an American Eagle ATR crashed during a Halloween rainstorm near Roselawn, Ind., killing all 68 people aboard. Another American Eagle crash near Durham, N.C., on Dec. 13, killed 15 of the 20 people on board. That plane was a Jetstream Super 31.