The FAA web site has a really nice page describing the incident. There are some good quality images on that page showing the missing window both from the exterior and interior. Note that there is no fuselage damage in the immediate vicinity of the window. Yes, there is other fuselage damage elsewhere.
Regardless (and to further digress), I hadn't thought about your premise that the passenger may have been struck by a piece of debris. I suppose it'll never be known for sure. Ugh. Makes one want to think twice about sitting in line with a jet's fan blade or a propeller's plane of rotation. I can think of two other incidents where passengers were gruesomely killed by flying engine parts.
A window being shot out would not suck out a passenger.
While I would agree that a hole in the window wouldn't be a major problem, if the entire window is removed suddenly, yes, a passenger can be sucked out. It happened on National Airlines Flight 27 in November 1973 after an engine had an uncontained failure of the fan disk which threw engine debris into the fuselage and caused at least one window to entirely fail.
Granted, the passenger wasn't "sucked across the cabin...." He was sitting right next to the window that failed. His body was found two years later.
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When I first read the headline, I immediately thought: "Larry Niven's Slaver Sunflowers for real??!"
http://news.larryniven.net/con...
Regardless (and to further digress), I hadn't thought about your premise that the passenger may have been struck by a piece of debris. I suppose it'll never be known for sure. Ugh. Makes one want to think twice about sitting in line with a jet's fan blade or a propeller's plane of rotation. I can think of two other incidents where passengers were gruesomely killed by flying engine parts.
One was a Convair incident in Brainerd, Minnesota in January 1983 where a propeller blade separated from the hub and entered the cabin killing one and injuring another.
Another was Delta Air Lines flight 1288 in July 1996. An uncontained failure of the engine killed 2 passengers and injured 5.
And, of course, none of this has anything to do with the original article.
A window being shot out would not suck out a passenger.
While I would agree that a hole in the window wouldn't be a major problem, if the entire window is removed suddenly, yes, a passenger can be sucked out. It happened on National Airlines Flight 27 in November 1973 after an engine had an uncontained failure of the fan disk which threw engine debris into the fuselage and caused at least one window to entirely fail.
Granted, the passenger wasn't "sucked across the cabin...." He was sitting right next to the window that failed. His body was found two years later.