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Investigators from the national transportation safety board tried to figure out what happened. >> it's very important to find out what happened in this event. we don't 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 daylight running through it. >> all of a sudden the oxygen masks dropped and everyone was trying to get ...

Investigators from the national transportation safety board tried to figure out what happened. >> it's very important to find out what happened in this event. we don't 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 daylight running through it. >> all of a sudden the oxygen masks dropped and everyone was trying to get ...

Mishap over arizona. the boeing 737 was at 36,000 feet when a four-foot hole suddenly opened in the fuselage. part of southwest's 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. >> it's very important to find out whact happened in this even. we don't want this to happen again and airplane structures should not rupture as it did yesterday. >> reporter: passengers say the hole opened up shortly after takeoff. >> it sounded luke a big explosion. all of a sudden there was a big hol...

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 just four minutes flat. >> unreal. like a little explosion. it sounded like an explosion at least. a...

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. >> southwest's 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 over hawaii. a flight attendant died and many people were hurt. i spoke with one of the passengers...