The Boeing 737 Max 9 was back in the news, and the story wasn’t positive. Luckily, no one was injured or killed when an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon, bound for Ontario, California, had a piece of the fuselage blow off mid-flight. Passengers could be heard saying it was sheer luck that no one was sitting by that window seat because this incident would’ve had a tragic ending. From the video footage, it looks like the emergency door flew off.
Madeline wrote yesterday that federal officials later recovered the door after informing the public they needed help finding the missing piece of the airplane. An Oregon man discovered an iPhone reportedly belonging to an Alaska Airlines flight passenger. He turned it over to the National Transportation Safety Board. He claims the device was virtually undamaged and still in airplane mode after falling 16,000 feet.
The FAA grounded a portion of the Boeing 737 fleet for further inspection. United Airlines found that bolts needed tightening, among other safety checks. NBC News reported that the aircraft’s pressurization system will also be examined, but this doesn’t bode well for airlines using this aircraft or Boeing, which continues to suffer problems with their 737 model (via NBC News):
This is not looking good for Boeing https://t.co/kvqNk40tSQ
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) January 8, 2024
Four days after a section of the fuselage suddenly detached as an Alaska Airlines plane was taking off, United Airlines reported Monday that its inspectors discovered several "instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug," including bolts needing additional tightening.
United Airlines said it has been inspecting its fleet of Boeing 737 Max 9 planes to make sure they are safe to fly as federal investigators continued to investigate Friday's near-disaster aboard an Alaska Airlines plane.
Hours later, Alaska said in a statement that reports from its technicians, who had "accessed the area in question" while preparing the fleet for formal inspections, "indicate some loose hardware was visible on some aircraft."
[…]
The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday grounded 171 of the Boeing 737 Max 9 planes worldwide so they could be inspected. On Monday, the agency said the aircraft would remain grounded "until operators complete enhanced inspections" and complete any necessary corrective action.
United Airlines said in its announcement that grounding its fleet of 79 737 Max 9 aircraft led to about 200 flight cancellations Monday, with “significant cancellations” expected Tuesday.
It said switching some flights dependent on the 737 Max 9 to other models will help preserve 30 flights that could have been canceled.
[…]
On Sunday, the NTSB reported that Alaska Airlines had previously restricted this particular plane from long flights over water, specifically to Hawaii, because an air pressurization alert light that had illuminated during three prior flights, twice in the days leading up to Friday.
But aviation experts told NBC News on Monday that based on the information provided thus far by federal authorities the light was going off as the result of a computer glitch of some kind and not indicating there was a mechanical problem on the plane.
"It’s not unusual in the aviation world for there to be issues with warning lights and most of the time the issue is with the warning light itself," Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB investigator. "It’s not like Alaska Airlines ignored it. The fact that it restricted this plane from making flights over water while they were looking into this warning lights issue points to a robust safety culture."
John Cox, who weighs-in regularly on aviation issues for NBC News, agreed.
"The pressurization system, from what I’ve read, was acting normally," said Cox, who said he flew Boeing 737's for 15 years. "This appears to be more a sensor problem. But Alaska Airlines, being a conservative airline, said this has happened a couple times now and we need to look into, but let’s not do that over the Pacific Ocean."
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For the foreseeable future, say a few prayers if you’re traveling on these sorts of aircraft once all the inspections are done. In 2019, a horrific crash in Ethiopia led to virtually all 737s being grounded for inspection.
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