Alaska Airlines announced late Friday that it is temporarily grounding its fleet of 65 MAX 9s until all are inspected.
This follows a serious incident on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 earlier in the evening when a piece of the fuselage blew out at 16,000 feet leaving a large hole and decompressing the passenger cabin.
The plane made an emergency landing back in Portland 20 minutes after taking off from there on a flight that had been destined for Ontario, Calif.
All 171 passengers and six crew were safe, with only some minor injuries, Alaska said. Fortunately, no passenger was seated by the opening.
In a statement, Alaska Air Group CEO Ben Minicucci said the MAX 9s would be grounded and inspected to ensure safety.
“Following tonight’s event on Flight 1282, we have decided to take the precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft,” Minicucci said. “Each aircraft will be returned to service only after completion of full maintenance and safety inspections.”
“We anticipate all inspections will be completed in the next few days,” he added. “I am personally committed to doing everything we can to conduct this review in a timely and transparent way.”
Scant details about the incident were available Friday night, as authorities with the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration had just begun to review the damaged aircraft. Information about a possible cause has yet to be provided.
All passengers and crew deplaned at Portland International Airport. Alaska sent a new jet to take them to their destination, though some chose not to go, and Minicucci said the airline is offering whatever support is needed.
“My heart goes out to those who were on this flight – I am so sorry for what you experienced,” he said in the statement. “I am so grateful for the response of our pilots and flight attendants.”
“We have teams on the ground in Portland assisting passengers and are working to support guests who are traveling in the days ahead,” he added.
Photos of the plane’s interior shared on social media showed a large hole in the plane’s side. Oxygen masks dangled from the ceiling showing that the passenger cabin had depressurized.
The neat rectangular hole that appeared in the fuselage was located at the position where Boeing fits a plug to seal a door opening that is not used as a door by most airlines and by no U.S. carriers.
An emergency exit door is installed in that location only for jets going to low-cost carriers like Ryanair who cram in additional seats that require an extra emergency exit. Otherwise, the hole is sealed with a plug and from the inside it is covered by a sidewall so that to a passenger it looks like a normal window, not a door opening.
This plug, halfway between the over-wing exit and the door at the rear of the plane, is present only on the largest versions of the 737.
It’s fitted on the previous generation 737-900ER and the same design is on the 737 MAX 8-200, the high density version for low-cost carriers, as well as the MAX 9 and MAX 10.
It is not present on the MAX 7 or MAX 8.
Online FAA records show this specific MAX 9 was almost new. Boeing delivered the jet to Alaska on Oct. 31.
Flightaware data shows Flight 1282 was the aircraft’s third flight of the day and second take off. It had flown from San Diego to New York overnight and then on to Portland earlier in the day.
There is no immediate explanation as to why the plug blew out. Photos and videos made by passengers inside the jet show clean metal brackets where the plug would be latched, with no visible breaks, deformations or tears in the metal.
Flight data provided by flight tracking company Flightaware shows that six and a half minutes into the flight, having climbed to an altitude of 16,000 feet and with the plane traveling at a speed of 444 miles per hour, the pilot descended rapidly.
It appears that’s the moment when the plug blew out and passengers saw a gaping hole, felt a rush of air leaving the cabin, and saw the oxygen masks drop from the ceiling.
Aboard the plane, “It was deathly silent. Nobody made a noise,” 29-year-old passenger Kyle Rinker said in a text message to The Oregonian/OregonLive. “You could feel the plane shake a little because of the air pressure difference.”
The Flightaware data shows the crew descended to 10,000 feet within four minutes then turned back toward Portland and continued their descent.
The flight that had taken off at 5:07 p.m. landed back at Portland at 5:27 p.m.
The airline will be investigating the accident.
“We are working with Boeing and regulators to understand what occurred tonight, and will share updates as more information is available,” Minicucci said.
In a statement, Boeing said it is “working to gather more information.”
Boeing said its “technical team stands ready to support the investigation.”
The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation and said in a post on X that it would post updates when they were available.
“The safety of our guests and employees is always our primary priority, so while this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation,” Alaska said in a statement
The FAA did not immediately respond to an email request for information.
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— Alex Padilla (@AlexFromEW) January 6, 2024
The 737 MAX is the latest version of Boeing’s signature narrowbody jetliner. Alaska had recently transitioned to an all-Boeing fleet and relies heavily on the MAX, which has been in service since 2017 and has accumulated over 6.5 million flight hours globally. (The airline’s $1.9 billion proposed purchase late last year of Hawaiian Airlines would add Airbus planes to its roster.)
MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 saw all versions of the plane grounded. The investigation that followed showed that a flawed flight control system in the plane was the primary cause of both tragedies.
In late December, Boeing informed airlines and the FAA of a possible loose bolt in the rudder control system of Boeing 737 MAX airplanes and required inspections of specific tie rods that control rudder movement for possible loose hardware.
In 2018, a woman died after a damaged engine on a Southwest Airlines 737 hurled shrapnel at the fuselage and broke a cabin window beside the passenger.
Friday’s emergency landing was Alaska Air Group’s second significant flight safety incident that ended with a plane landing at Portland’s airport.
In October, an Alaska-owned Embraer E175 jet operated by its regional carrier Horizon Air diverted to Portland after authorities say an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot attempted to shut off the plane’s engines. The Alaska Airlines pilot, who was riding in a jump seat on the flight deck, currently faces state and federal charges related to the incident.
Seattle Times reporter Taylor Blatchford contributed to this report, which includes information from The Associated Press and Seattle Times wire services.
