Airline pilot in window terror

A PILOT was ‘sucked halfway’ out of an aeroplane when the cockpit windshield exploded at 32,000 feet.

Xu Ruichen, 27, was saved by his seatbelt and pulled back in safely when the glass in front of him blew out.

Captain Liu Chuanjian, of Sichuan Airlines, was hailed a hero after making a manual emergency landing in Chengdu, western China, on Monday.

He said the Airbus A319, which was flying to the Tibetan capital Lhasa, had just reached a cruising altitude of 32,000 feet when a deafening sound tore through the cockpit.

He said: ‘There was no warning sign. Suddenly, the windshield just cracked and made a loud bang. The next thing I know, my co-pilot had been sucked halfway out of the window. Everything in the cockpit was floating in the air.’

Mr Xu suffered scratches and a sprained wrist, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which is investigating, said. None of the flight’s 119 passengers was hurt.