Passenger heard popping noises from outside plane at SFO

A Texas man who was on the American Airlines flight that made an emergency landing after some of the cabin’s wall panels cracked loose says passengers knew there was a problem soon after the plane took off from San Francisco.

James Wilson, an amateur race car driver returning from a competition in Northern California, said they felt the fuselage violently shaking and heard popping noises coming from the outside of the Boeing 757 as Flight 2293 made its initial ascent on Monday.

Wilson says people sitting toward the middle of the plane then screamed for the flight attendants to come as they watched the interior panels pull apart on both sides of the plane.

He says the captain decided to keep heading to Dallas for another 45 minutes until he came back and saw the damage for himself.