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The Federal Aviation Administration said on Saturday that a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane lost part of its fuselage in the air “with a very loud popping sound,” less than a day after it frightened passengers. The company was ordered to suspend use until an inspection was conducted. before the jet returned safely to the ground.
Passengers on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, bound for Ontario, California, said they had a disturbing experience during the 20-minute flight back to Portland, Oregon, International Airport on Friday night. As yellow oxygen masks hung over their heads, strong winds blew through the gaping hole, revealing the night sky and city lights below. No one on board the plane was seriously injured.
Passenger Vi Nguyen, of Portland, said she was woken up by a loud noise during the flight. That’s when she noticed a large hole in the side of the plane.
“When I open my eyes, the first thing I see is an oxygen mask in front of me,” said Nguyen, 22. “And I looked to my left and the wall on the side of the plane was gone.”
“My first thought was, ‘I’m going to die,'” she added.
The FAA’s order affects approximately 171 aircraft.
The FAA has not yet publicly discussed the cause of the incident, but in its grounding order for airlines, it required them to inspect what it called a “mid-cabin door plug.” Some Boeing 737 Max 9s are configured with fewer seats and do not require all the emergency exits originally designed for this plane. Unnecessary outlets are filled with plugs.
Alaska Airlines confirmed in a statement Saturday afternoon that it had begun inspecting door plugs and had cleared 18 of its 65 Max 9 planes to return to service. The airline said it expects the tests to be completed within the next few days.
Spirit AeroSystems spokesman Forrest Gossett said Saturday that his company installed door plugs on the Max 9, and that Spirit also installed door plugs on Alaska Airlines flights.
According to aviation data provider Cirium, United Airlines operates 79 Max 9s, more than any other airline. Her 65 ships in Alaska represent about a fifth of the fleet.
“Safety will continue to be the driving force in our decision-making,” Mike Whitaker, the agency’s administrator, said in a statement. The FAA is working with the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation into the Alaska Airlines flight.
United Airlines announced Saturday that it would suspend the use of some of its Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft in response to an FAA order. The airline said in a statement that 33 of the 79 Max 9s in service have already been inspected. The airline said the grounding of aircraft is expected to result in about 60 canceled flights on Saturday.
“We are working directly with affected customers to find alternative travel options,” the airline said in a statement.
The FAA says it will take four to eight hours per aircraft to complete the necessary inspections.
Boeing issued a statement shortly after the FAA’s grounding order. “Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this incident has had on our customers and their passengers,” Boeing spokeswoman Jessica Kowal said in a statement. “We agree with and fully support the FAA’s decision to require immediate inspection of 737-9 aircraft with the same configuration as the affected aircraft.”
Boeing’s Max aircraft have a troubled history. The Max was grounded around the world after two Max 8 jet crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed hundreds of people within months.
Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 departed for Ontario International Airport at 5:07 p.m. and diverted back to Portland six minutes later, according to aviation tracking website FlightAware. It reached a maximum altitude of about 16,000 feet and recorded speeds of more than 440 miles per hour, before landing in Portland at 5:27 p.m.
The cause of the midair problem was not immediately clear. Keith Tonkin, managing director of Aviation Projects, an aviation consulting firm in Brisbane, Australia, said the wall may have collapsed due to an excessive difference in pressure between the cabin and the exterior.
Tonkin added that the passengers were likely able to breathe normally even when the plane was at its highest altitude.
Nguyen’s friend Elizabeth Lee, 20, said she heard a “very loud pop.” She said she looked up and saw a large hole in the wall of the plane about two or three rows away.
Lee said no one was sitting in the window seat next to the missing plane, but a teenage boy and his mother were seated in the center and aisle seats. After a few minutes, she said, a flight attendant helped her move to the other side of the plane. She added that the boy appeared to have taken off his shirt and his skin was red and irritated.
“It was scary, to be honest,” she said. She said: “She almost broke down in tears, but then she realized she had to stay calm.”
She said there were announcements over the speaker system, but the wind blowing through the plane was so loud that she couldn’t hear anything. After the plane landed, paramedics came on board and asked if anyone was injured. A man sitting in the row directly behind the hole said his leg hurt.
Leh said the passengers had not been given an explanation of what happened. In a video she shot of the plane, passengers could be heard clapping after landing. “Oh my god,” someone says.
After landing, Lee said he and a friend would board another flight to Ontario later that night.
Lawyer Evan Smith, 72, was returning home to Murrieta, Calif., after visiting his daughter and son-in-law in Portland when he heard a loud “bang” and “a cloud of smoke. He said he could see “things” swirling around. around the cabin.
Smith said his experience as a military police officer taught him the importance of remaining calm. Furthermore, he said: “The plane was stable. It wasn’t shaking. It wasn’t moving strangely. It was just flying steady.”
He added: “The plane was fine and I was confident we would descend safely.”
The plane was a new model, having just been certified in November, according to the FAA’s aircraft registry. It began commercial operations that month and has logged 145 flights since then, according to Flightradar24, another flight tracking site.
Sara Nelson, president of the Flight Attendants Association, the union representing flight attendants at Alaska Airlines, United Airlines and other airlines, said in a statement Saturday that she welcomes the testing required by the FAA.
“This is an important measure to ensure the safety of all crew and passengers and to ensure confidence in the safety of aviation,” she said. “Life must always come first.”
As of noon Saturday, Alaska Airlines had canceled about 100 flights, or 13% of its scheduled flights that day, according to aviation tracking website FlightAware. Dozens more flights were delayed.
Passengers flooded Alaska Airlines’ phones Saturday to rebook on canceled flights or find out if future flights would be affected by the suspension. Customer service wait times exceeded seven hours, passengers said on social media.
In 2018, Lion Air Flight 610, a 737 Max 8, crashed into the ocean off the coast of Indonesia, killing all 189 people on board. Less than five months later, in 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed shortly after departing from Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board.
The Max plane was grounded after the second crash. Boeing made changes to the plane, including the flight control system behind the crash, and the FAA cleared the plane to fly again in late 2020. In 2021, the company agreed to a $2.5 billion settlement with the Department of Justice, resolving criminal charges. Boeing conspired to defraud government agencies.
In December, Boeing asked airlines to inspect all 737 Max planes for loose rudder control system bolts after an international airline discovered a bolt with a missing nut during routine maintenance. Alaska Airlines said at the time that inspections of its fleet were expected to be completed in the first half of January.
Max planes are widely used. Of the approximately 2.9 million flights scheduled worldwide in January, 4.3% will be conducted using Max 8 aircraft and 0.7% will use Max 9 aircraft.
The Max is the most popular aircraft in Boeing’s history, accounting for one-fifth of all orders since 1955, according to company data.
rebecca carballoand Christine Chan Contributed to the report.
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