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Investigators from the national transportation safety board tried to figure out what happened. >> its very important to find out what happened in this event. we dont want this to happen again and airplane structures should not fail and respect rupture, as it did yesterday in arizona. >> reporter: passengers say the hole opened up shortly after takeoff. >> it sounded luke a big explosion at least. all of a sudden there was a big sunroof in the middle of the plane, a big hole. you could say daylig...

Investigators from the national transportation safety board tried to figure out what happened. >> its very important to find out what happened in this event. we dont want this to happen again and airplane structures should not fail and respect rupture, as it did yesterday in arizona. >> reporter: passengers say the hole opened up shortly after takeoff. >> it sounded luke a big explosion at least. all of a sudden there was a big sunroof in the middle of the plane, a big hole. you could say daylig...

Mishap over arizona. the boeing 737 was at 36,000 feet when a four-foot hole suddenly opened in the fuselage. part of southwests fleet is now grounded. >> reporter: the plane is sitting in yuma, arizona, as investigators from the national trappings safety board try to figure out what happened. >> its very important to find out whact happened in this even. we dont want this to happen again and airplane structures should not rupture as it did yesterday. >> reporter: passengers say the hole opened ...

Cabin >> i held his hand and tried to not think about the woman screaming a couple rows back and just prayed. >> started crying. i have an 8-month-old at home. am i going to see her one more time? i am not ready >> it will be a better sense of where it took place. the phoenix flight was on the way to sacramento when the fuselage ruptured, forcing the plane to divert to a military base in yuma, arizona. the pilot had to bring it down quickly, dropping from 36,000 feet to 11,000 feet. that was in ...

Sunroof in the middle of the plane a big old hole. seeing daylight running through it. >> all of a sudden the oxygen mask dropped and everyone was just trying to get the mask on. >> southwests entire fleet is made up of various models of boeing 73. 548 them of the fleet has an average age of just over 11 years. each aircraft six flights per day just under 11 hours each day. southwest is awaiting government approval to buy airtran airways. the worst accident of this type, though, was 23 years ago...

Landing at a military base in yuma, arizona, and passengers relived those terrifying moments in the sky. >> like an explosion, at least, but all of a sudden theres a big sun roof in the middle of the plane, big old hole, see daylight running through it. >> all of a sudden the oxygen masks dropped and everyone was just trying to get the mask on and it was scary. >> ntsb investigators found evidence of structural fatigue and widespread cracking in the planes fuselage, despite the fact it underwent...

Down very quickly dropping interest 36,000 feet it to 11,000 in just four minutes. just unreal. didnt expect -- all of a sudden like a little explosion. it sounded like an explosion at least. all of a sudden theres a big sun roof in the middle of the plane, a big hole. see daylight running through it. i thought we were going down. i really did. it seemed like we were dropping pretty fast. just all unreal. >> fortunately that plane landed safely at the military base in yuma. of the 118 people o...