Alaska Airlines grounds Boeing 737 MAX 9 after mid-air incident
Alaska Airlines is temporarily grounding its fleet of 65 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft after a plane lost one of its emergency doors after takeoff Friday, forcing an emergency landing, according to CEO Ben Minicucci.
Minicucci said in a statement that the aircraft will be returned to service only after maintenance and safety inspections, which he expected to be completed in the “next few days”.
Flight 1282, bound for Ontario (California), suffered the incident shortly after takeoff from Portland (Oregon) airport at 17:26 (Pacific Time) with 171 passengers and six crew members, the airline said.
“While this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation,” Alaska said.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating the depressurization incident. The Federal Aviation Administration also said the crew had reported a pressurization issue, and that it would investigate.
→ Alaska Airlines takes delivery of its first Boeing 737-8
The new MAX 9 was delivered to Alaska Airlines in late October and certified in early November, according to FAA data.
Boeing said in a statement it was looking into the emergency landing.
“We are aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,” the company said. “We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer. A Boeing technical team stands ready to support the investigation.”
The MAX 9 features a rear cabin door behind the wings that can be activated in dense seating configurations to meet evacuation requirements, Flightradar24 said.
The optional door is inherited from an earlier model, the 737-900ER. Several operators of that model that do not need the extra seats opted for the door space to be plugged before delivery, reducing weight and making the cabin more flexible.
IMPORTANCE OF SEATBELTS
The aircraft reached a maximum altitude of 16,325 feet during the flight, data show.
“Whenever you have a rapid decompression such as this, it’s a major safety event,” said Anthony Brickhouse, an air safety expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
“I can’t imagine what these passengers experienced. It would have been loud. The wind would be rushing through that cabin. It was a probably pretty violent situation, and definitely a scary situation.”
The incident shows the importance of passengers keeping their seatbelts buckled while seated in an airplane, even if the fasten seatbelt light is off, Brickhouse said.
With information from Reuters
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