Chris Fogg, who lives near Boise, is a critical-care nurse with an air ambulance company. He said he was flying with a patient from Twin Falls, Idaho, to Seattle last Wednesday when he got out of his seat on a two-engine turbo prop to fetch a water bottle.

When he sat back down he heard a loud boom and the window next to him exploded. He hadn't yet buckled his seat belt, and his head and his right arm were sucked out of the window.

"My left hand was on the ceiling and was holding me in, and my knees were up against the wall," said Fogg. He said he pushed as hard as he could and got enough air between his chest and the window to break the seal.

He fell back into his seat, blood pouring from his head. He said the pilot knew the plane had gone into rapid decompression but didn't know about the broken window, so he put the airplane into a dive to a safe altitude of 10,000 feet.