[BobL]

“Did the door suddenly blow off or did it first ‘spring a leak’, allowing the cabin to depressurize without passengers being sucked out?”

A number of factors:
1) This particular aircraft was known to have “pressurization problems” and with that, Alaska was afraid to fly it to Hawaii (definitely a Gold Star for Alaska).
2) So, yes, the leak was there.
3) There wasn’t a passenger directly adjacent to the blow-out (just luck on that one).
4) One mom had to tightly hang on to her twerp to keep him (or her) from being sucked out, but she lost her cell phone (your call regarding which she should have protected more).
5) My guess is that the passengers most at risk still had their seat belts on, thus preventing them from trying to imitate Evil Knievel.

[Redcitizen]

A number of factors: 1) This particular aircraft was known to have “pressurization problems” and with that, Alaska was afraid to fly it to Hawaii (definitely a Gold Star for Alaska). 2) So, yes, the leak was there. 3) There wasn’t a passenger directly adjacent to the blow-out (just luck on that one). 4) One mom had to tightly hang on to her twerp to keep him (or her) from being sucked out, but she lost her cell phone (your call regarding which she should have protected more). 5) My guess is that the passengers most at risk still had their seat belts on, thus preventing them from trying to imitate Evil Knievel. “ NASA’s Webb Finds Signs of Possible Aurorae on Isolated Brown Dwarf”

I’ll go with factor 6- a brown dwarf named Aurorae pulled the lever and the door flew off.