On Friday night, an Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing after how a hole appeared in its fuselage. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered airlines to temporarily ground some Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for safety checks after an Alaska Airlines plane lost a cockpit panel during a flight on Friday with about 180 people on board. The plane, which had been in operation only since November, was able to land safely, according to a according to the New York Times, was able to land safely at Portland International Airport in Oregon, where he had taken off from. No one was injured, although the Alaska chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants reported that workers described an “explosive” decompression in the cabin and said one flight attendant suffered minor injuries.
This was reported by Engadget.
“The FAA is requiring an immediate inspection of certain Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft before they can return to flight,” said FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker. “Safety will continue to be a critical factor in our decision-making as we assist the NTSB in its investigation of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.”
Immediately after the incident, Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci issued a statement saying that the company would suspend its fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft for several days as it conducts a safety inspection. “Each aircraft will be returned to service only after completing full maintenance and safety checks,” Minicucci said. The FAA’s order applies to “approximately 171 aircraft worldwide” operated by US airlines or located in the United States.
Minicucci also said that the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating what happened to Flight 1282, and “we will fully support their investigation.” The plane was en route to Ontario, California. The agency Reuters, citing FlightRadar24, reported that the explosion occurred at an altitude of about 16,000 feet (almost 5 km.). In social media shared by Reuters and the NYT, you can see passengers sitting right next to a large hole in the plane’s body and a completely open sky.
The Boeing 737 Max was previously on mothballs for almost two years after fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019. In the 2018 crash in Indonesia, all 189 people on board the plane died, and in the 2019 crash in Ethiopia, another 157 died.
In 2021, Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion in a settlement with the Department of Justice to avoid criminal charges in connection with the crashes.
