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NEW YORK (AP) – The emergency landing of an Alaska Airlines jetliner has led U.S. federal authorities to ground some Boeing 737 Max 9 planes, adding another episode in the history of problems in Boeing’s Max jet lineup. .
Here’s what you need to know about the Max 9 planes involved and what happens next.
what happened?
Part of an Alaska Airlines jetliner’s fuselage exploded seven minutes after takeoff 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) over Oregon on Friday night, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing. None of the 171 passengers and six crew members were seriously injured, but oxygen masks fell from the ceiling as cabin pressure dropped rapidly. National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the two seats next to the torn off section were empty.
How are federal authorities responding?
The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered some Boeing Max 9s operated by U.S. airlines and brought into the country by foreign airlines to be grounded until they are inspected. The emergency order affects approximately 171 aircraft worldwide.
The NTSB has begun an investigation focused on the blown-out paneled exit door, which is likely to last several months. Some jet planes with fewer seats are fitted with so-called door plugs instead of emergency exit panels. All jets grounded by the FAA have such panels installed.
Authorities are still searching for the door plug, which may have fallen near Oregon State Route 217 and Burns Road in the Cedar Hills area of west Portland.
How have airlines reacted?
Alaska Airlines has grounded all 65 of its Max 9 planes for inspection and maintenance. The airline initially kept 18 Max 9s in service on Saturday as they underwent detailed inspections as part of recent maintenance checks. However, the airline grounded those jets on Saturday night to comply with an FAA directive requiring all Max 9 operators to conduct certain tests.
United Airlines, the world’s largest Max 9 operator, has suspended its entire fleet of 79 Max 9 aircraft.
There are only two U.S. passenger airlines operating Max 9 aircraft: Alaska Airlines and United Airlines. The two companies operate nearly two-thirds of the 215 Max 9 aircraft in service around the world, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Six other airlines using the Max 9 include Panama’s Copa Airlines, Aeromexico, Turkish Airlines, Icelandair, flydubai and Kazakhstan’s SCAT Airlines, Cirium said.
Copa announced that it has temporarily grounded its fleet of 21 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft in compliance with an FAA order.
Alaska Airlines canceled 163 flights Sunday, or 21% of its schedule, according to Flightaware. United Airlines canceled 247 flights, or about 9% of its scheduled flights. Not all of the cancellations were necessarily due to the Max 9 crisis.
Alaska Airlines said the grounding had caused at least 160 flights to be canceled by Saturday evening, and disruptions would continue until at least midweek. United Airlines announced Saturday night that testing would result in about 60 flight cancellations.
Alaska Airlines said affected passengers should check online for rebooking options and request a refund. The airline said passengers whose flights are canceled will be transferred to the next available flight, but they can also request a change or refund without incurring a fee under its flexible travel policy. United Airlines does not have a policy specific to Max 9 testing, but it does waive change fees in the case of significant delays.
How safe is it to fly on these planes?
Federal officials and airline executives regularly tout the safety of air travel. There hasn’t been a fatal crash on a U.S. airliner since 2009, when a Continental Airlines Colgan Air plane crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground.
After arriving in Portland to investigate the Alaska Airlines incident, the NTSB’s Homendy said the United States has “the safest aviation system in the world.” But after a sharp increase in close calls between planes at U.S. airports over the past year, the FAA held a “safety summit” last year in which the agency urged airlines and pilots to fly more carefully. encouraged them to pay attention to
The incident also renews questions about the safety of Boeing’s Max aircraft, the latest version of its famous 737 aircraft. There are two versions of this aircraft, the larger Max 8 and Max 9.
After a Lion Air plane crashed in Indonesia in 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines Max 8 crashed in 2019, regulators around the world grounded Max 8 aircraft in service for almost two years. Boeing made changes to the automatic flight control system involved in the crash.
Last year, the FAA told pilots to limit the use of the Max’s anti-icing system in dry conditions over concerns that the air intakes around the engines could overheat and damage them, causing them to crash into the aircraft. And in December, Boeing told airlines to inspect their planes for possible loose bolts in the rudder control system.
But Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of aerospace safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said these past issues were unrelated to Friday’s explosion and are extremely rare in air travel. Brickhouse said fuselage panels can tear planes apart, but he couldn’t recall any previous incidents where they left a gaping hole like the one that forced an emergency landing on Friday.
In 2018, a passenger was killed on a Southwest Airlines jet when part of the engine housing was blown off and the window of the person sitting next to him was shattered. However, the incident involved an earlier model of the Boeing 737, not the Max.
What is Boeing’s response?
The Arlington, Virginia-based company issued a brief statement saying it “deeply regrets the impact this incident has had on our customers and their passengers.” Boeing said it supports the FAA’s decision to require immediate testing and is providing technical assistance to investigators. The company declined to make executives available for interviews.
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