MERIDIAN - The Federal Aviation Administration can name only one other instance when a window in a plane broke during flight.

This past Wednesday, it happened in Idaho and a Meridian man miraculously survived.

Chris Fogg works as a flight nurse for his family's company, Ada-Boi, an air ambulance service.

The Wednesday night flight from Twin falls to Seattle started as a typical transport.

Soon after takeoff, something happened that is incredibly rare, and surviving it is even more rare.

“I do have a real vivid memory of myself with my head down to my chest rocking pretty hard. I could see the tail of the plane and the headset that I was wearing was whacking the side of the plane,” said Fogg.

The image of hanging halfway outside a plane 20,000 feet above the ground is still fresh in Fogg's mind, making it hard for him to sleep at night.

The real life nightmare started just after take off from Twin Falls. Fogg just finished tending to his patient on the Ada-Boi Air Ambulance when something happened that easily could have ended his life.

It happened so fast, Fogg hadn't yet put on his seat belt.

“I remember just kind of chit-chatting with the pilot and the patient was looking out the side window and then there was this huge loud boom like an explosion. I was immediately sucked out the window to my right and my head and arm had gone out the window. Initially I had thought that the whole wall had given way- I had my left hand up on the ceiling and my knees against the wall and I was pushing with all my might to get back in. Finally I was able to get enough air going between me and the plane that I broke the seal and just kind of fell flat back on my back,” said Fogg.

Chris calls this moment the struggle of his life, and credits the pilot for helping him survive this horrifying moment.

“His job was to put the plane into a dive and get us to 10,000 feet as quickly as possible, and at the same time he's putting himself on oxygen to stay in complete control of the plane,” said Fogg.

The pilot made an emergency landing in Boise in order to get Fogg the medical attention he needed.

Although the moment the window broke still haunts him, Fogg feels lucky that this shredded shirt and a few cuts and bruises are the only signs of the freak accident.

“There's a big chunk of skin that was removed from my arm and 13 staples in my head. If you think about it, I am pretty unscathed for what I went through...it just wasn't my day to die,” said Fogg.

Fogg returned to work the very next day.

The company that owns the plane says this has never happened before, and the F.A.A. is still investigating.