Co-pilot sucked halfway out of cockpit when window smashed open at 30,000 feet

It may have started off as a smooth flight but after the co-pilot was partially sucked out of the cockpit window at 30,000 feet above the ground, it didn't end up as one. The only thing that kept the co-pilot from vanishing out that window was that he was strapped in at the time the window smashed, leaving a gaping hole to the outside world.

This comes on the heels of last month's tragic incident when a passenger cabin window was smashed midflight on a Southwest Airlines plane, pulling a woman halfway out of that hole.

Monday's smashed cockpit window happened to a Sichuan Airlines flight traveling at 30,000 feet after it departed from Chongqing and was headed for the capital of Tibet, according to CNN News.

Skill brought that plane in safely

The skill of the pilot and his crew brought that plane in for an emergency landing without any injuries to the passengers. The co-pilot suffered a sprained wrist along with some cuts after his ordeal of being partially pulled out of the plane through that hole. Another crew member sustained minor injuries, but that was all that was reported after such a horrific event.

They saw nothing, just heard the window smash

The crew in the cockpit did not see anything hit the plane, they just heard the noise of the window smashing. This instantly depressurized the cabin and exposed the crew to the temperatures outside that were measured at -30 to -40 degrees Celsius. According to the conversion table that would be -22 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit.

The news station CCTV, which is broadcast by the Chinese state, reported on the crew in the cockpit and how they kept calm throughout the entire event. Captian Liu Chuanjian and his crew reported that there was no sign to suggest that the windshield was about to burst, all they had to go by was the noise it made while doing so.

Co-pilot halfway out the cockpit window

The captain told reporters that when he looked to the other side of the cockpit, he could see that the co-pilot was "partially blown out of the aircraft." The only thing keeping him from being blown away was that he was still buckled up, said the captain of the flight.

The plane was carrying 119 passengers at the time the cockpit window blew out and it became a frightening scene, according to the passengers' reports. The flight attendants were in the process of serving dinner at the time the window smashed and the jarring of the airplane caused food to go everywhere.

Flight attendants were thrown into the air

They also said that some of the flight attendants were thrown into the air.

It was one of the flight attendants who sustained injuries during this event, along with the co-pilot. The cockpit window smashed when the flight was about 80 miles into the flight from their point of departure, according to CNN.

It was no easy task bringing the plane in for an emergency landing as it was "jolting strongly," making the aircraft difficult to control. When all was said and done, the emergency landing was successful and other than the attendant and co-pilot with minor injuries, everyone else was shaken, but fine.

Second smashed flight window in less than a month

This is the second incident in less than a month where a window on an aircraft was smashed open. Back on April 17, a Southwest flight over the U.S.

experienced a passenger cabin window getting blown out and a passenger was partially sucked out of the aircraft through that hole.

Jennifer Riordan died as a result of her injuries. Passengers scrambled to hold onto her and pull her back in, but reports say she suffered severe injuries, which were visible once they got her safely back into the plane.

It was a piece of the engine that broke loose and smashed the window on the Southwestern flight. It is not known what happened to cause the smashed cockpit window during the Sichuan flight on Monday. Both of these incidents are under investigation.