Passenger oxygen masks hang from the roof next to a missing window and a portion of a side wall of an Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which had been certain for Ontario, California and suffered depressurization soon after departing, in Portland, Oregon, U.S., on Jan. 5, 2024, on this picture obtained from social media.
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The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday ordered a brief grounding of dozens of Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for inspections, a day after a chunk of the aircraft blew out in the center of an Alaska Airlines flight.
Images and video of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 that were shared on social media showed a gaping hole on the side of the plane and passengers using oxygen masks before it returned to Portland shortly after taking off for Ontario, California, on Friday afternoon.
The FAA’s emergency airworthiness directive will affect about 171 planes worldwide and applies to U.S. airlines and carriers operating in U.S. territory, the agency said. Alaska and United Airlines said late Saturday that they were grounding their entire fleets of Boeing 737 Max 9s.
No serious injuries were reported on the flight, based on federal safety officials. There have been 171 passengers and 6 crewmembers on board, Alaska Air said.
“Safety will proceed to drive our decision-making as we assist the NTSB’s investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in an announcement.
Large-scale groundings of aircraft by the FAA or other aviation authorities are rare. The FAA has heavily scrutinized the Boeing 737 Max since two fatal crashes grounded the jetliner worldwide almost five years ago. Two other models of the Max, the smallest and largest version, haven’t yet been cleared by the agency to enter industrial service.
The section of the fuselage missing appeared to correspond to an exit not utilized by Alaska Airlines, or other carriers that do not have high-density seating configurations, and was plugged.
The National Transportation Safety Board has began its investigation. Chair Jennifer Homendy, at a press briefing in Portland Saturday night, asked the general public for help to find the plane’s missing door.
Homendy said no passengers were seated on the seat closest to the panel or the center seat within the row where the door blew out and added that it was fortunate that the plane was still climbing and never at cruising altitude when travelers and crew might have been standing or walking through the cabin.
“We could have ended up with something more tragic,” she said.
The incident was described as “an explosive decompression on the window exit,” based on Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the labor union that represents Alaska’s cabin crew and flight attendants at United, Spirit and other carriers.
Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of aerospace safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said such an incident is incredibly rare.
“Rapid decompression is a serious matter,” he said. “To see a gaping hole in an aircraft is just not something we typically see. In aviation safety, we might call this a structural failure.”
The incident can be a reminder to maintain your seatbelt fastened when seated, he added.
“I at all times advise people on a industrial aircraft, keep your seatbelt on regardless of what the sunshine says,” Brickhouse said.
Before the FAA issued its directive, Alaska Airlines earlier said it could ground its fleet of Boeing 737 Max 9 planes. On Saturday, the carrier said 18 of the planes “had in-depth and thorough plug door inspections performed as part of a recent heavy maintenance visit,” but later said it could temporarily ground all of them.
“We’re in contact with the FAA to find out what, if any, further work is required before these aircraft are returned to service,” Alaska said.
As of 7 p.m. ET, Alaska said it canceled 160 flights, affecting 23,000 customers.
Investigation begins
The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to Portland on Saturday to analyze the incident.
United Airlines, the most important operator of the planes within the U.S., had prepared to ground dozens of its Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for inspections, CNBC reported earlier. The carrier said late Saturday that it had grounded its entire fleet of 79 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft, after earlier saying 30 of the planes had already satisfied the FAA’s inspection requirement.
The FAA said the inspections will take between 4 and eight hours per plane.
The Boeing 737 Max 9 is a bigger version of Boeing’s best-selling jetliner, the 737 Max 8. Max planes were grounded worldwide in 2019 after two fatal crashes inside about five months of each other. The U.S. lifted its flight ban on the jets in late 2020 after software and training updates.
Plugged door
The Boeing 737 Max 9 has an emergency exit door cut behind the wings to be used in dense seating cabin configurations, like those utilized by budget airlines, based on Flightradar24.
“The doors aren’t activated on Alaska Airlines aircraft and are permanently ‘plugged,'” Flightradar24 said.
Boeing didn’t comment beyond its statement when asked in regards to the sealed emergency exit door. Spirit AeroSystems, which makes the fuselages for the 737 Max, confirmed to CNBC that it installed the plugged door on the aircraft.
“Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers,” Boeing said in an announcement on Saturday. “We agree with and fully support the FAA’s decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 airplanes with the identical configuration because the affected airplane.”
The corporate said it’s supporting the NTSB’s investigation.
There are 215 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes in service worldwide, based on aviation-data firm Cirium. Along with United and Alaska Air, other operators include Aeromexico, Turkish Airlines, Icelandair and Panama’s Copa Airlines.
Southwest Airlines and American Airlines operate the smaller 737 Max 8.
Late last yr, Boeing urged airlines to inspect aircraft for a “possible” loose bolt within the rudder control system, the newest in a series of manufacturing flaws on Boeing jets which have prompted additional inspections, and slowed deliveries of the jets.