The world looked on in shock as a door of Boeing 737 Max 9 was torn off mid-Alaska Airlines flight—but now, armchair detectives are rife with conspiracy theories surrounding the event.
“My new Roman Empire is the fact that no one was sitting in that seat on that plane with the window door piece of the plane literally broke off in the middle of the flight,” TikToker Maggie Stevens (@magggie.stevens) said in a video, which now has 6.5 million views. “How is no one sitting there? what are the odds?”
The plane had to make an emergency landing on Friday, as 177 passengers and crew landed safely in Portland.
“There was a really loud bang towards the left rear of the plane and a woosh noise – and all the air masks dropped,” one of the passengers on board told the BBC.
As users debated the fact that these crucial seats remained empty, several pointed to the “burnt toast theory” that has been going viral on TikTok recently.
@magggie.stevens 🤯🤯🤯 #alaskanairlines #airplane #romanempire ♬ original sound – Maggie Stevens
But what is burnt toast theory, and how does it relate to Flight 737?
“Burnt toast theory is the idea that if you burn your toast before work and it adds five to 10 minutes to your trip, it’s actually saving you from something catastrophic,” TikToker Ingrid (@offthe__grid) explained in a now-viral video.
“Maybe saving you from a car accident. Maybe saving me from someone who you don’t want to run into. But this is the idea that inconveniences in our lives, or when something releases us in the universe, it’s either saving us from something more detrimental or pushing us in the direction that we need to go in.”
As pointed out by several commenters on Maggie’s video, the person who was meant to be sitting on the window seat may have missed their flight, which according to them, is “even crazier” than what took place on that plane. “
The plane had to make an emergency landing on Friday, as 177 passengers and crew landed safely in Portland.
“There was a really loud bang towards the left rear of the plane and a woosh noise – and all the air masks dropped,” one of the passengers on board told the BBC.
Whoever was supposed to be sitting there has some serious guardian angels,” one commenter wrote. “It’s like the stories of people randomly not being able to get the one World Trade Center day of 9/11,” another added.
Maggie didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via email.