A Wakefield man is just thankful to be alive, as the door opened right next to his seat on a flight from the Upper Peninsula to Minneapolis.

Tom Yon was seated just a few feet from the door as the aircraft, operated by Boutique Airlines took off from Gogebic Iron County Airport back on May 5.

As the flight rolled down the runway, gathering speed to take off, the emergency door flew off, startling Yon and the other passengers.

“We were just about to take off probably going, I don’t know 100 miles per hour, and the door just flew off, a loud bang, and the door flew off and the noise and the wind and everything. I didn’t even see my bag get sucked out of the plane. I got it right here, this bag right here, got sucked right out of the plane. They gave it to me about an hour after take-off,” Yon told KBJR-TV during an interview. “It was scary, it was scary. If there would have been a person sitting on the plane with a baby on their lap, I don’t know what would have happened.”

“It happened so fast, and it was so unusual,” said Mike Parra, a Colorado resident who was on board the flight. “We’re all looking at each other like ‘did that just really happen?’”

The airplane ground to a stop after the incident, and no injuries were reported. This week Boutique Airlines announced that they fired the two pilots involved in the incident for failing to complete a pre-flight check list. They also announced they would no longer be serving Gogebic Iron County Airport because of the incident.

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Stacker compiled a list of the best places to live in Michigan using data from Niche. Niche ranks places to live based on a variety of factors including cost of living, schools, health care, recreation, and weather. Cities, suburbs, and towns were included. Listings and images are from realtor.com.

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