Alaska Airlines flight attendants feared passengers had been sucked out of the plane in the chaos following the Jan. 5 mid-air panel blowout on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet, according to harrowing testimony released by safety experts on Tuesday.

The comments gathered from interviews with attendants – who were not named – were among thousands of pages of evidence made public ahead of a two-day hearing that began earlier on Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board about the incident.

They provide dramatic accounts of the cabin crew’s efforts to help passengers and communicate with pilots when the panel blew off the jet at 16,000 feet after taking off from Portland, Oregon.

“I said there is a hole in the plane, in the back of the plane and I’m sure we’ve lost passengers,” said one flight attendant with about 20 years of experience, after spotting the hole in the plane and five empty seats.

The attendant was worried about an unaccompanied child toward the plane’s rear. “All I could think of was that he was sitting there and he was too small to reach the mask and was probably really scared.”

The NTSB is reviewing 737 manufacturing and inspections and oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration with a goal of making recommendations to prevent a repeat in the future. The incident has morphed into a full-blown financial and reputational crisis for manufacturer Boeing.

Flight attendants who were not authorized to speak publicly immediately after the accident described a loud bang, whooshing air and for one, tangled oxygen masks.

“I think I was able to (blurt) out, ‘I think we have a hole and we might’ve lost passengers.’ And then it seemed like I just lost contact, I tried calling back, tried speaking loudly into the phone, I couldn’t hear anything,” said a second flight attendant, with almost a decade of experience.

“Probably the scariest thing was I didn’t have exact communication with my flight deck and at first I didn’t know if the decompression was in the front, if we have pilots, and not being able to fully communicate with the back,” the flight attendant said.

The flight attendants both described damage to the plane and injured passengers, including one teen without a shirt on who had a red face and neck. One chair was completely stripped of the leather cover, fabric stuffing, upholstery and head rest tray table with the force of the decompression.

The second flight attendant said eventually pilots informed them that they were going to land, “so I knew that we were going to be okay.”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – High pressure is moving east and that is allowing low pressure entry into the state.

The ridge warmed Interior Alaska to the 80s, along with parts of Southcentral and Southeast Alaska Monday too.

Anchorage hit a record daily high for Monday with 77 degrees. That bests the old record of 76 from 1968 on August 5th.

Other warm highs in the state, 86 for Fairbanks, 85 in Ketchikan and Northway, 79 in Juneau and along the north coast, it hit 80 in Deadhorse and 70 in Utqiagvik!

Speaking of August 5, it was a year ago today that Juneau experienced the devastating glacial outburst flooding that destroyed homes and led to evacuations. The same situation is shaping up tonight. A flood warning is in place for the Mendenhall River. Residents west of Riverside Drive are being asked to stay AWAY from home overnight. The river is expected to crest overnight at 15.7 feet, well into major flood stage.

Rain is falling over Western Alaska and some of the rain will be heavy at times, even into Southcentral Alaska.

The hot spot in Alaska on August 5 was Fort Wainwright with 88 degrees. The cold spot was Gulkana, with 39 degrees.

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Updated: 15 minutes ago Published: 44 minutes ago

A Texas family of four remained missing Monday after the boat they were on capsized and sank near Homer on Saturday.

A relative identified the missing as Mary and David Maynard and their two sons, 11-year-old Colton and 7-year-old Brantley.

The family was on a 28-foot aluminum vessel with four other people on Saturday when it began taking on water around 7 p.m., according to Travis Magee, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard. A radio broadcast notified vessels of the call for help and the boat Salty Sea responded and rescued four people from a life raft, he said. They did not have any injuries, a spokeswoman said Sunday.

The Coast Guard began searching in the area, which officials said was roughly 16 miles west of the Homer Spit. Waves were at 2 feet and winds were less than 5 knots when the boat capsized, authorities have said.

Search efforts continued on Sunday, but were suspended around 6 p.m. A Coast Guard helicopter, plane, cutter and two other vessels were used during the search, in addition to help from the Alaska Wildlife Troopers and good Samaritan boats, Magee said.

Mary and David Maynard are from Troy, Texas and raised their sons there, said Christi Wells, who provided a statement on behalf of Mary Maynard’s parents on Monday. Colton and Brantley both play soccer and baseball, she said.

Mary Maynard, 37, worked as a traveling nurse and David Maynard, 42, stayed home with their children and had a lawn care business, Wells said. The family loved to travel and spend time with family and friends, which is what they were doing while visiting Alaska, she said.

The Coast Guard did not have additional details about the vessel or the circumstances surrounding the sinking on Monday.