Alaska Airlines Grounds Boeing 737-9 Fleet After Scary Visuals Of Mid-Air Window Blowout Surface

Alaska Airlines grounded its fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft on Friday, following a scary midair incident where a window and part of the fuselage blew out, leading to an emergency landing in the US city of Oregon.

The incident happened shortly after takeoff and the gaping hole caused the cabin to depressurise. The plane reportedly climbed to 16,000 feet before returning to Portland International Airport. The airline said the plane landed safely with 174 passengers and six crew members.

“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,” Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement. The US Transportation Safety Board has said it was investigating a depressurisation incident that forced an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 to make an emergency landing.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that the crew reported a pressurisation issue and that it would investigate. The new MAX 9 was delivered in late October to Alaska Airlines and certified in early November, according to FAA data. “While this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation,” Alaska said in a statement. “We are investigating what happened and will share more information as it becomes available.”

What Boeing said

In a statementBoeing said that it was looking into the emergency landing. “We are aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,” the company said in a statement. “We are aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,” the company said in a statement. “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.”

Read More: WATCH | Phones Sucked Out of Broken Window Mid-Air, Alaska Airlines Flight Makes Emergency Landing

Social media posts on X (formerly Twitter) showed a window and a portion of a side wall missing on the airplane and oxygen masks deployed. According to Flightradar24exterior photos of the aircraft appeared to show that the rear mid-cabin exit door separated from the aircraft during the flight. The MAX 9 features a rear cabin door behind the wings of the aircraft that can be “activated” in dense seating configurations to meet evacuation requirements, Flightradar24 said. However, they are permanently “plugged,” or deactivated, on Alaska Airlines jets.

The Max is the newest version of Boeing’s venerable 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle plane frequently used on U.S. domestic flights. The plane went into service in May 2017. Last week, Boeing said it was urging airlines to inspect all 737 MAX airplanes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder control system.

Notably, the 737 MAX was grounded for 20 months worldwide after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia. The US-based airline giant is awaiting certification of its smaller 737 MAX 7 and larger MAX 10, Reuters reported. The FAA has carefully scrutinised the MAX for years and even said in 2021 that it tracked all 737 MAX airplanes using satellite data.